Without any question, Dirk’s match report wins comment of the week. Probably wins comment of the year….
Back from a short trip to the Dutch coast in order to escape the Carnival season that started in my area last week. I guess I’m too old by now to wear false tits or something along those lines for four days in a row and drink way too much, that’s why we chose to go away and boycott the carnival by and large. So, a bit belated, but here you are, JC.
SBTRKT v The Fall: well, a most dull game, it must be said. It’s not easy to tell which team was the most boring one to watch, both performances jangled my nerves mightily because of whatever the noun for ‘repetitive’ might possibly be. The Fall though were a little bit less repetitive than SBTRKT, but just a tad. That’s why they won in the very last second. As Johan Cruyff said about this match: “Football is a game of mistakes. Whoever makes the fewest mistakes wins.”
Kitchens of Distinction v Talking Heads: much (!) more my kind of a game, this! Both teams were great and Kitchens were brilliant up to the last minute. Still ‘Artists Only’ has always been one my favorites by Talking Heads, so that’s why they succeeded in the end. But it was close! Arsene Wenger was right when he commented above game as thus: “Football is an art, like dancing is an art – but only when it’s well done does it become an art.”
Sonic Youth v Edwyn Collins: an easy score for Sonic Youth, because they entered the pitch with one of the best line-ups they could possibly have chosen. Poor old Edwyn failed here, it must be said! Perhaps he should’ve remembered Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s words: “If you are too nice, you will just get eaten alive. The football world is not always a nice place.”
The Velvet Underground v Talk Talk: as with the first game in this round, this one was rather bitter and not a great joy to watch! At the end of the day though the Velvet Underground won by following Gary Neville’s advice: “With good coaching, proper motivation and the right club structure with organic growth, you can achieve an awful lot in football.”
But did he get all four predictions spot on?? Not quite…….
SBTRKT 3 The Fall(3) 33
Kitchens of Distinction 18 Talking Heads 22
Sonic Youth 9 Edwyn Collins 30 The Velvet Underground 25 Talk Talk 14
KoD made a fist of things in the second half but ran out of time before being able to completely close the gap. The other three were never in doubt from early doors and I’ll be the first to admit that things weren’t exactly mouth-watering or tense in the same way as many of those that were drawn out in Round 1, but I think this week more than makes up for it.
Matches 5-8 of Round 2
New Order (3) v The Go-Betweens (2)
Both sides were expected to reach at least the last eight of the tournament but it’s just not to be. New Order took no chances in Round 1, fielding Blue Monday in what proved to be a surprisingly one-sided triumph over LCD Soundsystem, a move that some commentators feel may come back to haunt them in later stages. The Aussies also had to play hard to see off The Woodentops, and they took a bit of a risk on using The Wrong Road, one of their album tracks rather than a classic 45, although it does give them better options for this immense match-up.
Here’s the very crucial coin toss and roll of the dice.
Football. Bloody Hell.
Vanishing Point (from Technique, 1989) v Was There Anything I Could Do? (from 16 Lovers Lane, 1988)
The Charlatans v Carter USM
The Charlatans took a really laid back approach last time round, fielding a live and acoustic version of The Only One I Know, which might have been enough to defeat the cult of The Mekons but a similarly low-key performance this time round would certainly spell danger no matter the opponents, never mind the deadly South London duo. The same applies to Carter USM who used up a lesser-known b-side in Re-Educating Rita to see off the countrified challenge of Dwight Yaokam.
If either is serious about getting into the final 32, they will surely need to offer up songs in this round that will appeal beyond the immediate fanbase.
Coin…..Dice….oh my!! It’s fair to say these most certainly do that…from their wonderful and distinct introductions right through to the last notes.
Weirdo (from Between 10th And 11th, 1992) v Bloodsport For All (from 30 Something, 1991)
The Lightning Seeds v Big Audio Dynamite
Another all-English tie that comes under the heading of intriguing. The Lightning Seeds used up a hit single last time out, but it was a cover in You Showed Me which proved adequate to provide them with an easy win over Gemma Ray. Big Audio Dynamite used one of their strongest efforts in the shape of E=MC2, which enabled them to thump The Streets by 32-9 in a tie that, on paper, appeared to be one which would be a close call.
Before the songs for this round came out, the bookies had this one as a potential draw. Afterwards….they remain of the same opinion.
Pure (from Cloudcuckooland, 1990) v Medicine Show (from This Is Big Audio Dynamite, 1985)
The Cramps v Saint Etienne
Filth v Finesse.
Raw post-punk v dance-chic. Poison Ivy v Sarah Cracknell. Lux Interior v Bob Stanley. Dirk v The Robster.
The contrasts in this one are a complete joy to behold. One of those ties that you really want both to go through, but sadly there can only be one winner.
Both were expected winners in Round 1 and so it proved, each racking up more than 28 points – The Cramps fielded I Wanna Get In Your Pants to defeat Shit Robot while How We Used to Live saw off the challenge of The Sugarplastic.
Might be different this time, but it could well be that one of them racks up a high score again.
What’s Inside A Girl (from A Date With Elvis, 1986) v He’s On The Phone (single, 1995)
Please have your votes in by midnight on Friday 23 February….as ever, you don’t have to vote in all of the ties.
Loving the above occasional series. I am a bit obsessed by a song’s lyrics. Some of my favourite songwriters can turnout an amazing phrase or concept but for me the skill of a song as a short story is where every word earns its place and not a phrase is wasted for the sake of scanning,
The examples you have shared so far all stand on their own two feet on the printed page.
Loads to choose from but gone for this , part character study and part story. Put out of your mind National Express and the arched eyebrow . I hesitate as wondered if a short story song could have a chorus and then realised that was giving this way too much thought.
The thing I love about this is that take out any line and the whole is diminished. The subtle changes in the chorus all add to the picture and only in a couple of places is the phrasing slightly forced. The only place where the words alone don’t quite have the full impact is that they miss the sadness of the way Neil Hannon sings the final “No , you couldn’t be”. Kind of a upper class sister song to Labelled with Love
David (Friend of Rachel Worth)
Lady of a Certain Age
Back in the day you had been part of the smart set
You’d holidayed with kings, dined out with starlets
From London to New York, Cap Ferrat to Capri
In perfume by Chanel and clothes by Givenchy
You sipped camparis with David and Peter
At Noel’s parties by Lake Geneva
Scaling the dizzy heights of high society
Armed only with a cheque-book and a family tree
You chased the sun around the Cote d’Azur
Until the light of youth became obscured
And left you on your own and in the shade
An English lady of a certain age
And if a nice young man would buy you a drink
You’d say with a conspiratorial wink
“You wouldn’t think that I was seventy”
And he’d say, “no, you couldn’t be!”
You had to marry someone very very rich
So that you might be kept in the style to which
You had all of your life been accustomed to
But that the socialists had taxed away from you
You gave him children, a girl and a boy
To keep your sanity a nanny was employed
And when the time came they were sent away
Well that was simply what you did in those days
You chased the sun around the Cote d’Azur
Until the light of youth became obscured
And left you on your own and in the shade
An English lady of a certain age
And if a nice young man would buy you a drink
You’d say with a conspiratorial wink
“You wouldn’t think that I was sixty three”
And he’d say, “no, you couldn’t be!”
Your son’s in stocks and bonds and lives back in Surrey
Flies down once in a while and leaves in a hurry
Your daughter never finished her finishing school
Married a strange young man of whom you don’t approve
Your husband’s hollow heart gave out one Christmas Day
He left the villa to his mistress in Marseilles
And so you come here to escape your little flat
Hoping someone will fill your glass and let you chat about how
You chased the sun around the Cote d’Azur
Until the light of youth became obscured
And left you all alone and in the shade
An English lady of a certain age
And if a nice young man would buy you a drink
You’d say with a conspiratorial wink
“You wouldn’t think that I was fifty three”
And he’d say, “no, you couldn’t be!”
I don’t remember exactly how many times I saw The Triffids live, around fifteen I’d guess, but I do know that the first time was in a sparsely populated, subterranean, Romford night-club in 1984. Also in attendance that night was early champion John Peel. By 1989 I’d seen them headline prestigious London venues such as The ICA, The Town & Country Club and both The Shaw and Dominion Theatres. The world, it seemed, was their oyster, but despite critical praise and a devoted fanbase, the mass sales, required by major label Island, never materialised and the band drifted back to their native Australia, then drifted apart.
In May 1994 David McComb returned to the UK to play a handful of shows in support of his only solo album, ‘Love of Will’. I caught McComb, accompanied by his band The Red Ponies (featuring a pre-Bad Seeds Warren Ellis on psychedelic fiddle), in a cramped and sweaty Borderline, where they played a blistering set, comprising tracks from the solo album, classic Triffids material and well chosen covers from the likes of The Velvet Underground, Ray Charles, The Beatles and Prince.
It’s almost too heartbreaking to dwell on David McComb’s subsequent fate for too long. After undergoing a heart transplant at the age of 33, his final three years were spent plagued by ill health and personal demons. He recorded more music, but much of this remains officially unreleased. David died on February 2nd 1999, two weeks short of his 37th birthday. Gone, but never forgotten. (JC adds – this ICA has been timed to coincide with David’s birthday – he would have turned 56 tomorrow)
The Triffids left a towering body of work and selecting just ten pieces from it for this compilation has been a painful task. I’ve attempted to showcase the band’s versatility, from the snappy pop of ‘Beautiful Waste’ and ‘Trick of the Light’ through to ‘Lonely Stretch’ and ‘Stolen Property’, altogether darker offerings that often became even more intense in concert. I’ve also tried to make it a damned good listen. I hope you enjoy it.
1 Trick of the Light (Calenture 1987)
2 Red Pony (Treeless Plain 1983)
3 Bright Lights Big City (BBC Session 1985)
4 Jesus Calling (Raining Pleasure 1984)
5 Lonely Stretch (Born Sandy Devotional 1986)
6 Stolen Property (Born Sandy Devotional 1986)
7 Beautiful Waste (7″single, 1984)
8 Falling Over You (The Black Swan 1989)
9 Hell of a Summer (Treeless Plain 1983)
10 Monkey On My Back (BBC Session 1985)
It is damn near impossible to get across the effect that the above sleeve had on me as a 15-year old. Let’s just say that it went a long way to confirming that I was a heterosexual with longings for peroxide blondes.
Picture This is that very rare thing – a post-punk/new wave love song. And oh how I wished I could be part of Debbie’s finest hour….in fact I’d willingly have settled for 30 seconds.
mp3 : Blondie – Picture This
This is the 45 that was used as the precursor for the album Parallel Lines. Its b-side was a rather mournful sounding number that would also find its way on to the album
mp3 : Blondie – Fade Away and Radiate
As I’ve said in other posts, slow songs and ballads were not my forte back in the late 70s and I wasn’t all that keen on the b-side as it was nothing like new wave, more dull plod-rock. I’ve, however, grown to like it over the years and now appreciate it as an example of Blondie working hard not to be pigeon-holed into one particular genre. But it wouldn’t make an ICA…..
Oh and one more thing….. who said it is near impossible to look stunning in yellow?
SBTRKT 2 v The Fall (3) 20
Kitchens of Distinction 9 v Talking Heads 15
Sonic Youth 5 v Edwyn Collins 19
The Velvet Underground 15 v Talk Talk 9
(as at 11 pm on Monday 12 Feb)
Fewer goals scored in the first half this week….has the competition lost its shine already??
Worth mentioning also that nobody has yet, in any of the previous ties, been able to turn round a half-time defecit. The whistle went a little bit early this week as I couldn’t have the post interfering with a Valentine’s Day special, so maybe history can be made. But somehow I don’t see SBTRKT creating it. Or indeed any of the others….nobody has yet turned round a five-goal defecit (although the Fannies came mighty close last week)
One other thing….I’m dispensing with the banging pop tunes normally played at half-time – something that should go down well with Swiss Adam among others. Instead, you’ll be treated to something from the ICA of a singer or band knocked out in the last round by one of the eight sides competing so you can realise what your previous voting patterns have deprived the tournament of:-
mp3 : Associates – Party Fears Two
Remember….if you haven’t voted yet this week, you have until 10pm this coming Friday.
Geneva were formed in 1992 by vocalist Andrew Montgomery and guitarist Steven Dora. They recruited second guitarist Stuart Evans, bass player Keith Graham and finally drummer Craig Brown. Craig was later replaced by Douglas Caskie.
One of their demos found their way to Nude Records who signed the band in 1996. and released their debut single “No One Speaks” the same year. The band garnered enough press to headline NME’s annual Bratbus tour of up and coming bands in early 1997. The band released second single “Into the Blue” to coincide with the tour.
Geneva released their debut album, Further, early in June 1997. The album mixed power pop with darker brooding songs. It reached No. 20 in the UK Albums Chart, and included further singles “Tranquilizer” and “Best Regrets”.
The second album, Weather Underground, was released in March 2000, after more than a year of wrangling with the band’s record label. It was preceded by the single “Dollars in the Heavens” (which only made the UK Top 60) and followed by the single “If You Have To Go”. The band split later that year.
The band were often lumped in with labelmates Suede and other contemporaries such as Gene and Strangelove. I previously featured the excellent debut single and so this time round I’ve gone for one of the others:-
mp3 : Geneva – Tranquilizer
One listen and you’ll see why the comparisons mentioned above were made.
I’m being lazy this week and re-hashing an old post from January 2016 which I entitled
‘When John Denver went to Ibiza.’
My effort come up with an ICA for New Order in June 2015 placed Run as the final track on Side A when I said:-
Run is one of the most outstanding songs on the album and rather bravely the band went for an edited single release in due course in which about 45 seconds are chopped off and by editing down the dreamy instrumental finish to the song and replacing it with more of the re-recorded vocal with Barney’s voice given more prominence than the original mix. It’s a decent enough mix and does a job of giving us enough changes to think of it as a new song altogether but it’s not a patch on the original.
The remix was in fact worked on alongside Scott Litt who at tht point in time was known for having worked on couple of LPs by R.E.M. The fact that he would also work on the multi-million sellers Out Of Time and Automatic For The People albums in the 90s and become one of the most talked about producers of that era was all in the future…..
Run 2 is really quite a different version. To expand on what I said in the ICA piece, the long instrumental section at the end of the original is replaced by a repeat of the chorus while there’s also greater prominence given to Bernard’s vocal and guitar and Hooky’s bass lines in an effort to make it more appealing to radio stations. Despite this, Factory Records didn’t press up all that many copies and it wasn’t the easiest thing to find in the shops.
The record, which was released only on 12″ vinyl which played at 33 1/3 rpm, stalled at #49 in the UK charts which was the poorest showing by a New Order single in a long while. But this where the fun really started…..
After the release, John Denver (or more accurately John Denver’s lawyers) sued the group, claiming that Run 2, in particular the instrumental part, sounded too similar to his hit Leaving On A Jet Plane. The case was settled out of court, and as a result the single in it’s remixed form was, for a very long time, out of print save the original few thousand copies made available in 1989.
As a result, Run 2 was a bit of music much sought after by fans, especially outside the UK (it was never made available at all overseas). There was much anticipation when Run 2 was listed on the track lists of compilation LPs released in 1994 and 2005, but in fact it was always the original version from Technique that was included.
But finally in 2008, a deluxe edition of Technique was released that included the extended mixes of Run 2 and the track MTO that had been on the b-side of the 12″. But even now, the regular mix of Run 2 and minus mix of MTO a are otherwise unavailable.
Unless someone rips them from vinyl:-
mp3 : New Order – Run 2
mp3 : New Order – Run 2 (extended mix)
mp3 : New Order – MTO
mp3 : New Order – MTO (minus mix)
Oh and nowadays, the credits for all newly released versions of Run are attributed to Sumner, Hook, Morris, Gilbert and Denver.
Seems fair, given the brilliance of some of the comments this week, to compile an imaginary match report:-
This Round begins with the band that was once my “All Time Favorite” winning and then ends with the band that usurped that position. (echorich)
A few of these matches never made it to the pitch. Most cruised to easy wins. A couple were tight, and I freely admit there was cheating with one of the matches. I voted for a hero instead of heroes. Felt sorry for him, frankly. Getting thumped.(Brian)
I’m disappointed with the way some of these results are going. Cup football really is a shocker sometimes. (swiss adam)
Blimey. Some nailbiting ties here, but equally, quite a few Stockport County v Chesterfield-type games too. Some of my ties were decided by some dodgy refereeing decisions and the influence of a shady Welsh-based betting syndicate, but here’s the full-time scores. Cue Sports Report theme and the voice of Charlotte Green…(Robster)
MGMT 3 v The Clash 37
The Clash (you could put virtually any song up against White Man In Hammersmith Palais, the answer would still be The Clash) (rigid digit)
Martin Stephenson 26 v Andrew Weatherall 10
Lord Sabre’s notorious quality pressing(s) not enough to overcome an early lead from one of the most talented teams out there. (Luca) “It isn’t the hours you put in, but what you put in the hours!”. Easy, one of The Daintees’ finest recordings against a tune I’m probably a bit too old for …(sexy loser)
Johnny Marr 16 v Rod Stewart 23
Rod Stewart. Poor effort by Girls Aloud – perhaps if they’d stuck with their usual classic pop rather than relying on a throwaway guitar line from some guitarist or other. I mean – Ronnie Wood, Ian McLagan and Mick Waller, how do you compete with a back line of that quality. (Jacques) Having one of the most gifted role players on your team can win you a lot of games, but this time the weight of tradition was simply too much.(Luca) Surprised that Johnny Marr didn’t take the competition more seriously, although perhaps he’s got hopes of going all the way with his other outfit (jimdoes) feels odd to be voting against Johnny… or FOR Rod (Rol)
Asian Dub Foundation 21 v Stars 14
ADF who have the skills to pay the bills.(wycranything)
The Durutti Column 20 v The Beta Band 15
It wasn’t a classic but Reilly at sweeper kept it tight while Mason on the other side lacked his usual verve (Jacques) tough choice here, genuinely. But the boy Reilly edged those Betas out (bagging area) looking at a 0-0 draw, beta band scores own goal disappointing yet again the rabid supporters who traveled to the away game (GJ) The Beta Band’s tikitaka gave them ball possession for most of the match, but lack of focus was an issue against Vini Reilly’ s prowess (Luca)
Clyde McPhatter 20 v Gene Loves Jezebel 16
classic football here. Head up, crisp passes, executed brilliantly. Not a close match at all (GJ) Gene Love Jezabel barely got out of the changing rooms due to over use of hair spray (jimdoes)
Grandaddy 10 v Husker Du 26
Two sides marred by tragedy this past year…the minute’s silence beforehand was impeccably observed (Malky Tucker) A man down but Husker Du hold on till the final whistle (bagging area)
OMD 21 v Super Furry Animals 17
“There’s only a little difference between Champs and Chumps!”. A most boring game to watch, it must be said. OMD win in the end, but it was close …(sexy loser) SFA benches their A squad and fields their B squad thinking that they will win the match easily. It doesn’t happen.(GJ) Genuinely can’t believe SFA fielded a second-string outfit for this one. (Malky Tucker)
Teenage Fanclub 20 v Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (2) 20
The Aussies opened up an early lead but were pegged back by Fannies on the stroke of half-time. The final few days were a war of attrition with nobody ever getting more than a goal ahead at any time.
I had an idea at least one match this week might go all the way…and so for any tie-break scenario I asked my work colleague Doog, who also happens to be the keyboard player with The Just Joans to cast some votes. He did this on Thursday as he had the small matter of his wife Fiona giving birth on Friday!! (a boy…their second….both baby and mum are doing well!)
Doog’s shouts were Asian Dub Foundation, Beta Band, Clyde McPhatter and Daft Punk, none of which were needed. When it came to Nick v TFC, he said he couldn’t separate them. He threw a £1 into the air which landed heads; in doing so he made this observation in a comment come true…
so painful won on toss of the coin (Bill)
Heads was The Mercy Seat by Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.
the Bellshill Beatles couldn’t get the ball off Cave in this one (aldo) Cave gets it as it’s a live recording and the Bad Seeds have, for years, been the best live band on the circuit (Malky Tucker) the live version clinches it against a very strong TF track (the great gog) Those kiddie dilettantes tried, but it was not enough to steal a win when you’re clearly not (a) Big Star. (Luca) if you match the quality of the two centre forwards, Mercy Seat is a world class performer at every stage of his career while GKIT only really turns it on against weaker opposition. (Robster)
Roddy Frame 7 v The Stranglers 31
Frame’s midfield artistry undone by Trotsky’s devastating wing play on the left.(aldo) love Roddy, but against the Stranglers strongest song? (Rol) Major upset for me here but Roddy just didnt take it seriously (Matt) Not a popular result in the commentary box (Julian Badenoch) the Boy Wonder needs his team mates around him (charity chic) sorry Roddy. The Stranglers didn’t send me a Christmas card, and in 1983, when I saw the Stranglers live, I was listening more to High Land, Hard Rain than No More Heroes, but that song is pure class. (nic ross) Neil warnocks team kick the opposition all over the park. (friend of rachel worth)
Fats Comet/Tackhead 6 v The Pixies 30
non-league vs World Champions. No contest. Game abandoned at half-time due to the home team’s refusal to leave the dressing room for the second half. The H-T score was allowed to stand. (Robster) “A ‘head(er) on’ from Francis to Deal – and it’s there. Deal scores. And it’s 1-0 to the team from Boston. And there simply will not be enough time for a response.” (strangeways) Pixies – by a Gigantic margin (charity chic)
Yellow Magic Orchestra 13 v The Stone Roses 25
The Mancunian juggernauts needed to go on extra-time to snatch this victory from the jaws of defeat, having been initially caught completely by surprise by a not very well known Oriental team. (Luca) Yet another difficult tie but truculent Mancunians usually win (bagging area) “Sweat more in preparation, bleed less in battle!”. An easy task for The Roses, ‘Cos I’m afraid I’m not clever enough to understand the YMO’s tactics. Never have been, in fact! (sexy loser)
The Lucksmiths 17 v Daft Punk 23
5imply 5uperb play from the French. Against 5ome teams you just have no hope. The Lucksmiths got 5wept. (Luca) (Un)luck(y)smith United had a stinker of a draw (Julain Badenoch) Lucksmiths the awful victims of their opponents ability to drive a horse and carriage through the Financial Fair Play regulations and field a superstar vocalist. (Malky Tucker)
A.R. Kane 7 v The Trashcan Sinatras 27
Oh, come on, AR Kane – what a weak performance! (sexy loser) The self proclaimed dark horses through as the opposition sound like they are all on drugs and not performance enhancing ones (jimdoes)
Coldplay 11 v The Detroit Cobras 23
No such luck for U2’s B team on the end of a severe thrashing from Detroit Cobras.(jacques) Any team would have beaten the shower of shite that is Coldplay (jimdoes) 5 minutes of Chris Martin whining or a tune that was made by people who sounded like they were enjoying themselves? Hmmm.(the great gog)
Leonard Cohen 7 v Echo and The Bunnymen 34
And so we reach the final tie of what has been a very entertaining first round. No messing with this one. Spare Us The Clutter was always going to clean up this one. Here’s hoping star striker McCulloch can Do It Clean in the forthcoming rounds. (jacques) A great match that went to extra time and penalties, such a shame there had to be a loser (Julian Badenoch) Slow cool just won’t do against pure energy in a game like this (Martin) what a match this was, the determining factor in the end being the strength of the team selection.(Robster)
I know the last four Saturdays have been a bit frantic but the staging of 16 ties was all about making the remainder of the ICA World Cup much more manageable.
The crazy nature of the draw meant that a few of the big names have gone out early on, but there’s still plenty of your favourites, dark horses and underdogs in the hat to hopefully make it still worth your while to keep an interest.
Today marks the beginning of Round 2, with 64 teams still left to battle things out. There will be just four ties per week at this stage which allows a little bit more of an in-depth look at the match-ups.
Here’s matches 1-4.
SBTRKT v The Fall
SBTRKT came through a low-scoring affair against Kanye West in Round 1 in a match which didn’t offer too many moments for the highlight reel. The Fall, represented last time by 15 Ways, lifted from what was the first ICA of the four that have featured in thes series, came through quite comfortably against Queens of the Stone Age in a tie that was played against the sad backdrop of the death of Mark E Smith. The bookies, even before the songs were selected, have made the post-punk veterans, with their huge squad to choose from, strong favourites. Maybe they were a touch premature…..
The Light (from Wonder Where We Land, 2014) v Birthday Song (from The Marshall Suite, 1999)
Kitchens of Distinction v Talking Heads
A fascinating match-up between an English band whose vocalist was born in Switzerland and an American band whose vocalist was born in Scotland. Kitchens of Distinction came through comfortably against The Indelicates last time round, thanks to Japan to Jupiter, one of the tracks from their 2013 comeback album. They are likely going to have to hope that one of their songs from their golden period of 86-96 gets onto the pitch today to face a side who have seen off two dogged and determined opponents in Close Lobsters and Massive Attack. This could all depend on the coin and dice….
Sand On Fire (from Cowboys and Aliens, 1994) v Artists Only (from More Songs About Buildings and Food, 1978)
Sonic Youth v Edwyn Collins
A tie in which both managers have been effusive about the other side’s star qualities and abilities. Sonic Youth played a dangerous game in Round 1, fielding what to many was the less than stellar I Love You Golden Blue, but it was enough to fend off Billy Joel. The former Orange Juice vocalist came through a really tough opener, knocking out Associates whom many were tipping for a good run. Both will likely require one of their best in this round to advance any further.
mp3 : The Empty Page (from Murray Street, 2002) v If You Could Love Me (from Gorgeous George, 1994)
The Velvet Underground v Talk Talk
A really strong showing, thanks to fielding Waiting For The Man, enabled the 60s veterans to easily see off the challenge of The National last time round and on paper, they should probably have enough to get through against one of the cult UK acts of the 80s, much of whose work as featured on the ICA is far removed from the pop hits that took them into the singles charts on a couple of occasions. You could call this an intiguing match-up….especially as the former are represented by a track that is more of a jam than a finished song….
mp3 : The Booker T (from Peel Slowly and See boxset, 1995) v The Rainbow (from Spirit of Eden, 1988)
Please have your votes in by Friday 16 February but voting from now on will close at 10pm (sitting up to midnight these past four Fridays has been tough going, especially when nothing has actually happened at the last minute!!).
As ever, you don’t have to get involved in all of the ties.
Tune in next Saturday for matches 5-8, one of which may well be the hardest choice of songs you’ll have faced….thus far!
I pose the question, initially, as I think The Murrumbidgee Whalers is one of the silliest names adopted by any band, far less one whose existence was back in the heydays of jingly-jangly indie pop in the late 80s.
I’ve never shied away from that fact that 1988-1990 was a period when personal circumstances saw me hang up my anorak for a while and stop being obsessed by music. The gaps have, over the years, been slowly filled in by friends and increasingly by the growth of specialist blogs on t’internet. The other great thing has been the willingness of labels such as Cherry Red to reissue a lot of long-lost songs via box sets and it was through one of their latest, C88, that I was able to hear a song by the aforementioned Whalers (who mustn’t ever be confused the backing band of Bob Marley).
The booklet with C88 advises:-
“The unusually monikered Murrumbidgee Whalers (possibly named after a Harry Robertson song of the same name) came from Carshalton Breeches in Surrey and featured songwriter Peter Watts and his brother Chris. The band’s sole release, ‘Giving Way To Trains’, a bright, sunny, Byrds-esque ode to the perils of acting before thinking, was pressed up in a meagre run of just 250 copies and coupled with the more folksy lovelorn tale ‘In A Garden’. A sublime example of jangly indie pop with a definite nod to early R.E.M., ‘Giving Way To Trains’ later reappeared as part of a free vinyl EP with House of Dolls fanzine.”
So, almost thirty years after the event, I got to hear this song:-
mp3 : The Murrumbidgee Whalers – Giving Way To Trains
It was a genuine ‘wow’ moment. Yup, there is something about it that immediately brings to mind the Murmer/Reckoning releases by Athens GA finest but there’s also a very fine guitar sound that made me think immediately of Johnny Marr picking out the tune for I Want The One I Can’t Have.
Which lead nicely to the second reason for posing the question in the title of today’s posting. Why was something this good limited to only 250 copies with the impact that 30 years on, you’ll have to fork out £125 and upwards for a copy. So a huge thanks to Cherry Red for including it in the latest box set. I’ve also dug deep to find the b-side, scratches and all:-
mp3 : The Murrumbidgee Whalers – In A Garden
A b-side that is just about as catchy and immediate as the a-side and is way more listenable than many other songs of the era, some of which are held up today as bona-fide classics.
I wonder if we Canadian folk seem as non-descript to outsiders as we believe ourselves to. We certainly spend a lot of time discussing amongst ourselves our apparent lack of Canadian identity, or defining culture, in the face of the proverbial elephant in the bedroom to our south. Similarly, when travelling abroad, we are sure to emblazon our Canadian flag on our backpacks, so that we can somewhat condescendingly be told that we are “Just like Americans, only nicer”. But there are certainly times when we surprise ourselves, and have overwhelmingly unique and truly “Canadian” reactions to things. Our long-standing fondness for the band The Tragically Hip, which almost no one outside our border has even heard of let alone “gets”, is a striking example of this.
So when Gord Downie, lead singer and creative power behind The Hip, as they are more affectionately known here in the country, passed away last October 17th, almost four months ago, dealing with the grief has been a defining moment in our national psyche. Even our Prime Minister shed public tears for the world to see. Community gatherings, public outpourings of emotion, daily news stories, memorial performances, celebrity tributes—all the means by which we measure the greatness of a person’s impact on us—continued to unfold spontaneously over the subsequent days, weeks, and even months.
As significant as we all know the passing in recent years of great musical figures such as David Bowie and Prince to have been to the world at large, the response within Canada to the passing of Gord, as most of us thought of him in our minds, exceeded all of these put together, and then some, if you can measure by the public response that followed. Even the recent death of another Great One of our of own, Leonard Cohen, though he meant a tremendous lot to so many both here and around the world, did not stay in the forefront of the news and the public consciousness quite as long. I think the only other musical figure who came quite as close in capturing the Canadian heart was the folksy Stompin’ Tom Connors, who probably deserves an ICA somewhere himself, though I am guessing even fewer are familiar with his material outside the country.
And why this emotional response to Gord Downie, outsiders may ask in somewhat surprised curiosity, even given the untimeliness of his death to a rare form of brain cancer? Though that is impossible to put into language, and I doubt I could add much to the (Arctic) oceans of ink spilled in the attempts to answer the same question in Canadian media, I would only say that Gord Downie was not just “one of us”; in some strange mystical way, he was us, or rather, a homey, comfortable embodiment in rock star form of the values and ideals of our hockey-playin’, doughnut-lovin’, toque-wearing nation of sometimes self-effacing, sometimes self-aggrandizing hosers.
To me, then, definitely worthy of an ICA.
Side 1:
Track 1: New Orleans Is Sinking, from the album Up To Here (1989).
Though I recognize that at this blog, where harder rockin’ songs are not the standard fare, this track may not be an immediate hit, it is probably nonetheless the obvious choice for a lead-off track, if you follow the theory of putting your strongest foot first. This song has at various times made it near to the top on various organizations “Best Canadian Tracks Of All Time”, one of which I remember was a very thoroughly annotated list played on the CBC’s program entitled “50 Tracks: the Canadian Edition”, where it hit #16.
Our local alternative powerhouse radio station CFNY put the case for this song a little more strongly, putting the song at #24 on their 2008 List of the Top 200 New Rock Songs Of All Time (whether Canadian or not!). A little odd, you say, that the Great Canadian Song should focus in its lyrics on an American city? Well, it goes to show you non-Canadians that if nothing else, we Canucks are outward focused, looking to the outside world (and especially our American neighbours) to make sense of ourselves. Think of the Guess Who’s greatest oeuvre, “American Woman”, as another example.
As a side note, this is one of the few songs by The Hip ever to attain any popularity in the US, where the band themselves are practically unknown, except for a few border towns and, rather understandably, a pocket around New Orleans. Most radio stations did, however, pull this song from airplay out of sensitivity when Hurricane Katrina struck…a case of being a bit too close to home.
And when Gord Downie died, it was perhaps inevitable that the mildly irreverent lines from the lyrics to this song, “I looked up to God above, and said, “Hey man, thanks!”, should have been turned into near-ubiquitous t-shirts that (equally irreverently) merely swapped out the word “God” for “Gord” to express our gratitude to our dying hero.
Track 2: The East Wind, from the album The Grand Bounce (2010) by Gord Downie and The Country of Miracles.
This is probably my personal favourite Downie-penned song, and it is interesting that it is from his third solo album, which I recommend quite highly to everyone I can, but perhaps most to those who don’t know or don’t like the Tragically Hip sound, as it takes his music in his own, more indie direction. I love his explanation of how the lyric in the song about the East Wind being the “laziest wind” came about. According to Downie, who spent his time in rural settings whenever he could, he was once having a conversation with a local farmer, and when he complained about the wind, the farmer looked at him knowingly and said that the strong east winds blowing at the time were in fact “the laziest winds”. When asked why, the farmer, a man of few words, answered succinctly, “Because they don’t go around you. They go right through.” And it was just like Gord that a conversation with a farmer turned into a great Canadian song…
Track 3: Ahead By A Century, from the album Trouble At The Henhouse (1996)
Another strong track to follow the first two. This was easily the most played Hip song during Downie’s extended public mourning. And everyone sang along….
Track 4: Blow At High Dough, from the album Up To Here (1989).
I think of this song as the little sister of its album mate, New Orleans is Sinking. A cracking tune about how:
They shot a movie once, in my hometown Everybody was in it, from miles around Out at the speedway, some kind of Elvis thing…
And to paraphrase Gord’s lines that follow these opening lyrics, he himself certainly was no movie star, but hey, yeah, he sure could get behind anything.
Track 5: Grace, Too, from the album Day For Night (1994)
Lyrically mysterious, a good bit sultry and brooding, and a grand way to close out side one…
Side 2:
Track 6: Little Bones, from the album Road Apples (1991)
This is likely the first song by the Hip that I really got into, and it was around the same time as I was deepest into the music of R.E.M. At the time, I remember thinking that though they are quite different, what R.E.M. is to America, the Hip are for Canada. And that’s some pretty good advice there to “eat your chicken slow, it’s full of all them little bones…”
Track 7: Bobcaygeon, from the album Phantom Power (1998)
Bobcaygeon is a small town in cottage country in Southern Ontario, where I spent so much time in my youth fishing with my grandparents. Enough said. It evokes my misspent youth…though apparently Downie said in interviews he only picked Bobcayheon to rhyme with “constellation”.
Track 8: Nautical Disaster, from the album Day For Night (1994)
This song, as well as the two final tracks to follow, are really good examples of the oblique narrative style song for which Gord Downie was so renowned. Behind the impressionistic lyrics, apparently, is the story of the sinking of the German ship Bismarck, and the aborted rescue attempts following, by the British ship Dorsetshire. Pretting gripping stuff if you tune in…
Track 9: Fifty Mission Cap, from the album Fully Completely (1992)
…But perhaps even more ominous is the story behind this song.
Bill Barilko was a star player on the Toronto Maple Leafs championship hockey team from 1947-1951, helping the home team win the Stanley Cup for the fourth time within those years with an overtime goal in Barilko’s final season. That summer he went on a fishing trip up north with his dentist, and the two were never heard of again, their plane going down somewhere in the wilds of Northern Ontario. The Leafs’ team was reputably cursed as a result of this, as they subsequently entered an eleven year drought, not winning the Cup again till the very year Barilko’s missing body was finally discovered and laid to rest in 1962…
Track 10: Wheat Kings, from the album Fully Completely (1992)
…And maybe the most emotionally impactful story of the lot, immortalized by a cracking great tune, this one tells the tale of David Milgaard, a young teenager from Saskatchewan who was wrongfully imprisoned following the grisly murder of a young local nursing student. Milgaard had been out with friends, a typical 17 year old, when he was picked up by investigating police, a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The police force were under great public pressure to make an arrest, and seemingly massaged the evidence to suit their case against him.
Although he would have served just 8 years if he had pleaded guilty, and indeed could have been released on parole almost any time after that if he had signed papers admitting guilt, he protested his innocence heroically, and ended up serving 23 years, until he was cleared definitively by DNA evidence (and the real killer caught and jailed). Now he is rebuilding his life, it seems, quite as heroically…chilling stuff, treated without any preachy or maudlin sentiment by Gord Downie, but rather with the wistful and and timeless air of a nation self-reflecting.
The running commentaries this week have been a scream. I’m going to compile the best of them (and sadly there isn’t room for everything) into a short report on Saturday morning.
MGMT 3v The Clash 27
Martin Stephenson 20 v Andrew Weatherall 6
Johnny Marr 10 v Rod Stewart 19
Asian Dub Foundation 14 v Stars 12
The Durutti Column 13 v The Beta Band 12
Clyde McPhatter 13 v Gene Loves Jezebel 13
Grandaddy 7 v Husker Du 19
OMD 17 v Super Furry Animals 12
Teenage Fanclub 15 v Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (2) 15
Roddy Frame 6 v The Stranglers 22
Fats Comet/Tackhead 5 v The Pixies 21
Yellow Magic Orchestra 8 v The Stone Roses 21
The Lucksmiths 14 v Daft Punk 16
A.R. Kane 5 v The Trashcan Sinatras 20
Coldplay 10 v The Detroit Cobras 14
Leonard Cohen 4 v Echo and The Bunnymen 27
(all as at 1.30pm on Tuesday 6 February – I’m out doing my matchday announcer at Raith Rovers in the evening and unable to keep up with blog stuff).
Fair to say that there’s a couple of unexpected shock results in the offing while others are far too tight to call. Special mention to Teenage Fanclub who were 6-1 down early on but have gradually pulled things back in what is proving to be a compelling contest.
Click here for a reminder of what the full list of songs are. Deadline is Friday midnight.
This coming Saturday will see the start of Round 2 – it will be played over an extended period of 8 weeks, with four ties each time. The draw has already been made with all of the above in as an either/or option.
Here’s everyone who went into the hat for Round 2:-
1. A.R. Kane or Trash Can Sinatras 2. Arab Strap 3. Asian Dub Foundation or Stars 4. Big Audio Dynamtie 5. Billy Bragg 6. British Sea Power 7. Butcher Boy 8. Carter USM 9. The Charlatans 10. Coldplay or The Detroit Cobras 11. The Cramps 12. Durutti Column or The Beta Band 13. Echo & The Bunnymen or Leonard Cohen 14. Edwyn Collins 15. Emiliana Torrini 16. Everything But The Girl 17. The Fall 18. Farmer’s Boys/The Higsons 19. Fats Comet/Tackhead or The Pixies 20. Gene Loves Jezebel or Clyde McPhatter 21. The Go-Betweens 22. Grandaddy or Husker Du 23. Half Man Half Biscuit 24. The Housemartins 25. The Jam 26. The Jesus & Mary Chain 27. Johnny Marr or Rod Stewart 28. Julian Cope 29. Kitchens of Distinction 30. Lambchop 31. The Lemonheads 32. The Lightning Seeds 33. Lloyd Cole & The Commotions 34. The Lucksmiths or Daft Punk 35. Magazine 36. Martin Stephenson or Andrew Weatherall 37. MGMT or The Clash 38. New Order 39. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds or Teenage Fanclub 40. Orange Juice 41. Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark or Super Furry Animals 42. Paul Quinn 43. Pavement 44. Pete Wylie 45. PJ Harvey 46. The Police 47. Prefab Sprout 48. Pulp 49. R.E.M 50. Ride 51. Roddy Frame or The Stranglers 52. Saint Etienne 53. SBTRKT 54. The Skids 55. The Smiths 56. Sonic Youth 57. Talk Talk 58. Talking Heads 59. The The 60. The Velvet Underground 61. The Wedding Present 62. Wire 63. XTC 64. Yellow Magic Orchestra or The Stone Roses
Future Pilot A.K.A. is the nom de plume of Glasgow indie musician Sushil K. Dade, a former member of the Soup Dragons, BMX Bandits and Telstar Ponies. Future Pilot’s music blends classic indie pop with Indian classical, dub and hip hop influences.
Dade has released four albums under the Future Pilot name on a variety of record labels, including Stephen Pastel’s Geographic and most recently, Creeping Bent. The Future Pilot project is particularly noted for its vast range of collaborators and guest contributions from figures as diverse as composer Philip Glass, writer Alasdair Gray, Thurston Moore, Kim Gordon of Sonic Youth, Karine Polwart, Can’s Damo Suzuki and members of the Glasgow indie scene, including Stuart Murdoch and Teenage Fanclub.
I’ve always intended to explore things a bit more, but never seem to find the time. All I have is one track, courtesy of its inclusion on a charity CD I picked up back in 2004.
mp3 : Future Pilot A.K.A. – Salute The Divine Within You
The most fun that I ever had Was the night the gypsies came to town Lit up these streets like they’ve never seen And have not seen since
Up to that point we were country boys Snorting speed and surfing cars Chasing girls and bailing hay And smashing up our lives
They put up a tent in the pasture fields And invited everybody round
I spent two long days and three whole nights Losing my mind to all that’s right I spent three long nights and two whole days Losing my mind on a MDMA It was
Round & Round is a magnificent offering. It was much adored by Tony Wilson who pushed hard for it be issued as a 45 when the band were asking for it to be Vanishing Point. Legend has it that Wilson struck a bet with Rob Gretton, the manager of New Order, that it would be at least a Top 5 hit in the charts, and if not he would resign as chair of Factory Records. It only reached #21 and to his word, he did resign, albeit for a day. And in typical Factory behaviour, the event was deemed significant enough for it be given its own catalogue number, FAC253.*
The single did take the piss somewhat in respect of formats in the UK, with two different 12″ releases, one 7″ release and 2x CD singles, all with variations in the sleeves and some offering different b-sides. I bought the standard 12″ with the catalogue number FAC263:-
mp3 : New Order – Round & Round (12″)
mp3 : New Order – Best & Marsh (12″)
The single has a different mix from the album version; the b-side was the theme tune to a television show in which legendary footballers George Best and Rodney Marsh talked nostalgically about the good old glory days.
I’ll feature the music via the other formats, beginning with FAC263/7:-
mp3 : New Order – Round & Round (7″)
mp3 : New Order – Best & Marsh (7″)
FAC263r was the remix single.
mp3 : New Order – Round & Round (Club Mix)
mp3 : New Order – Round & Round (Detroit Mix)
FACD 263 was the CD single. It contained the 7″ and 12″ mixes of the single, the 7″ Best & Marsh and this:-
mp3 : New Order – Vanishing Point (Instrumental Making Out Mix)
This came from an otherwise unreleased soundtrack work that Steven and Gillian had done for a BBC drama series called Making Out, one of whose stars was Keith Allen to who we will return later in this series. It’s a fantastic variation on one of the stand-out tracks from Technique (and the one the band were keen to issue as a 45).
FACD 263r was a 3″ CD single that featured the club, Detroit and 12″ mixes of the single.
Oh and for completeness sake, here’s the LP version.
Just wish that I had danced to Round & Round in a club back in 89/90.
JC
*yup, I also think it is bizarre, but I suppose typically Factory, that the resignation of the chairman (FAC 253) comes in the catalogue in advance of FAC 263, which was the number given to Round and Round….all New Order singles did have a ‘3’ at the end
FAC 33 NEW ORDER Ceremony
FAC 53 NEW ORDER Procession
FAC 63 NEW ORDER Temptation
FAC 73 NEW ORDER Blue Monday
FAC 93 NEW ORDER Confusion
FAC 103 NEW ORDER Thieves Like Us
FAC 123 NEW ORDER The Perfect Kiss
FAC 133 NEW ORDER Subculture
FAC 143 NEW ORDER Shellshock
FAC 153 NEW ORDER State of the Nation
FAC 163 NEW ORDER Bizarre Love Triangle
FAC 183 NEW ORDER True Faith
FAC 193 NEW ORDER Touched by the Hand of God
FAC 223 NEW ORDER Fine Time
FAC 263 NEW ORDER Round & Round
(more to come)
Four weeks in and you should know the drill by now….I’ve dug out a Scottish classic TV intro for the tune this week.
I also wanted to begin by saying a huge thanks to everyone who has voted over the past three week…especially those who have shared additional thoughts along with your selections. Almost everyone has voted via the comments section, but there is one correspondent, a real football/music fanatic who is very well known to myself, Jacques and Aldo, who insists on doing so by email. His entry this week made me laugh:-
Here are votes of the Cambuslang jury for Round 1 part 3
1. TJAMC 2. Joe Strummer 3. OK it’s the only Pippettes tune I know. But I like it. Sorry Lloydy. 4. This was like being at Livi v Falkirk last Tuesday desperately hoping something would happen. It did – Falkirk scored with the last kick of the game – as have T-Rex here. Would have preferred The Jam to go through, but that’s life. 5. Woah. The Faces pushed Saint Billy closer here than I would have expected. Great 2nd half performance from the Bard of Barking closed out the victory. 6. The Housemartins (I prefer their average track to Gene’s equivalent). 7. Never thought I’d find myself having to compare Mr Duggie’s work to Emiliana Torrini!! Hardest one yet to be dispassionate about. But I really do prefer the Huge Doggie song. 8.Jayhawks 9. This battle of the heavyweights was always going to be down to the luck of the draw. Will be surprised if many others haven’t also gone for Radiohead on this basis. 10. Elbows Out? No, Elbow’s in! (And no, it’s not cos you didn’t invite me out to see the Skids the other week!) 11. Aw this was harder than I expected. Go on, Underworld then. 12. This is getting harder! Dwight Yoakam. 13. Holy moly, this is taking the piss now. I just can’t decide. So I won’t, sorry. 14. Honestly can’t believe I’m doing this, but on the basis of this track. Simple Minds. Jeez, how did that happen? 15. Mixing sporting metaphors now, but this was a TKO in round one. VU. The National never stood a chance. 16. Quirky, Quixotic. Take away the vowels (and err, a ‘Q’) and my answer you will have!
This is too much fun.
M.
I do hope you’re all enjoying this as much as M. Given the heavyweight nature of so many ties this past week, I’m thinking you’ll be keen to get the results immediately….but before I do, please let me share the mental torture the final few hours brought me.
Two of the ties were either level-pegging or had one goal in it since Thursday morning. Each vote that came in seemed to swing it one way or another. The final say came from strangeways, fresh from his personal triumph with his Talulah Gosh ICA (now there’s a team to watch in the 2020 edition of the tournament). He clinched it for one of the teams in the match-up of the heavyweights, relying as he says on a Video-Assisted Referee to make his mind up. However, his vote made it a tie in the Foil v Emiliana Torrini clash. As a result, it has gone to extra-time and the possibility of penalties. Here’s the other scores for you meantime…..
The Wondermints 11 The Jesus & Mary Chain 33
Joe Strummer 19 Julian Cope 25
The Pipettes 11 Lloyd Cole & The Commotions 32
The Jam 34 T. Rex 10
Billy Bragg 33 The Faces 10
The Housemartins 33 Gene 11
The Jayhawks 17 The Farmer’s Boys/The Higsons 21
R.E.M. 23 Radiohead 22
Elbow 12 The Skids 29
Underworld 15 Ride 25
Carter USM 29 Dwight Yoakam 10
Pulp 30 Tindersticks 13
The The 24 Simple Minds 21
The Velvet Underground 39 The National 5
Friends Again 16 XTC (2) 27
Foil v ET has, indeed, gone to penalties after a 19-19 draw. My dilemma is that I have met Hugh Duggie, lead singer with Foil. He is a very good friend of my very good friend Jacques the Kipper. I also prefer the Foil song to that of the Icelandic songstress.
But…..I think there has to be a fairer way of deciding this one…..and I’ve gone back to the original ICA pieces to see which one received the most plaudits at the time.
STOP PRESS……………………………..Emiliana Torrini goes through 5-3 on pens.
So how do you follow all that drama? Easy-peasy…………..
MGMT v The Clash
Flash Delirium (taken from Congratulations, 2010) v White Man In Hammersmith Palais (single, 1978)
Martin Stephenson v Andrew Weatherall
Crocodile Cryer (from Boat To Bolivia, 1986) v Toddla T and Roots Manuva ‘Watch Me Dance’ (Andrew Weatherall Remix) (2011)
Johnny Marr v Rod Stewart
Girls Aloud – Rolling Back The Rivers In Time (2008) v Country Comforts (from Gasoline Alley, 1970)
Asian Dub Foundation v Stars
Naxalite (from Rafis Revenge, 1998) v The 400 (from The North, 2012)
The Durutti Column v The Beta Band
Madeleine (from Lips That Would Kiss EP, 1980) v Dance O’er The Border (from The Beta Band, 1999)
Clyde McPhatter v Gene Loves Jezebel
Bip Bam (single, 1954) v Motion Of Love (from The House Of Dolls, 1987)
Grandaddy v Husker Du
Jeez Louise (from Just Like The Fambly Cat, 2006) v Makes No Sense At All (single, 1985)
O.M.D v Super Furry Animals
Pulse (from History of Modern, 2010) v Arnofio/Glo In The Dark (b-side, 1996)
Teenage Fanclub v Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds
Don’t blame me…..and if you ever wanted proof that this draw isn’t rigged, you just got it!
God Knows It’s True (Peel Session) (1991)
The Mercy Seat [live] (from Live Seeds, 1993)
Roddy Frame v The Stranglers
Bigger Brighter Better (from The North Star, 1998) v No More Heroes (from same, 1977)
Fats Comet/Tackhead v The Pixies
Fats Comet – Bop Bop (single, 1984) v Head On (from Trompe Le Monde, 1991)
Yellow Magic Orchestra v The Stone Roses
Ryuichi Sakamoto – Riot in Lagos (from B-2 Unit, 1980) v Begging You (from The Second Coming, 1995)
The Lucksmiths v Daft Punk
Southernmost (from Southernmost EP, 1999) v Get Lucky (from Random Access Memories, 2013)
A.R. Kane v The Trash Can Sinatras
Sperm Whale Trip Over (from Sixty Nine, 1988) v All the Dark Horses (from Weightlifting, 2004)
Coldplay v The Detroit Cobras
Square One (from X&Y, 2005) v Down In Louisiana (from The Original Recordings, 1996)
Leonard Cohen v Echo and The Bunnymen
Chelsea Hotel #2 (from New Skin From The Old Ceremony, 1974) v The Cutter (from Porcupine, 1983)
Those, genuinely, were the last two names left in the bag for the 1st Round.
As ever, please don’t feel you have to offer your views on all the match-ups, but I’m sure the TV game will have everyone offering an opinion.
Deadline is Friday 9 February, midnight UK time.
48 teams are already through and the 16 winners from the above will join them. It’s been a frantic first four weeks, but it will ease down after this week with a maximum of four ties in each feature, thus allowing a few words to be said on each song and/or performer(s). The first four games of Round 2 will be with you next Saturday.
James have been the subject on an in-depth look at all the 45s they ever released, (and as such have been unlucky in never having an ICA devoted to them), so this isn’t the first time JimOne has been featured on the blog. I did hum and haw a bit, but given it’s now over four years since it last featured, I think it’s OK to have feature again as part of this series.
I’d forgotten until a recent re-read of Stuart Maconie’s essential bio of the band that was published back in 2000 just how many name and line-up changes they had gone through prior to getting the first single out and into the shops. Venereal and The Diseases, Volume Distortion, Model Team International, Model Team and Tribal Outlook had all been adopted and discarded. Tim Booth was the fourth person who had taken on lead vocals, and indeed had only really been recruited on the basis of him being a dancer until it was considered his status as public-school educated university student gave him a capability for writing better lyrics than any of Paul Gilberston, Jim Glennie or Gavan Whelan.
Indeed, many of the most popular early songs written and performed by James were tunes that pre-dated Tim getting on board, many of which, including at least one of those on the 3-track debut, had their original words butchered or removed altogether with the vocalist far from keen to blast out lyrics that were, at best, ambiguous and, at worst, borderline misogynous.
They had been gigging a fair bit around Manchester, including some reasonably high-profile support slots for The Fall, when Tony Wilson asked them to sign to Factory and release an album. Despite Wilson and others such as Rob Gretton actively pursuing James and talking them up at all times, the band were very wary of the label and did everything they could to be awkward, including refusing to record what the label were hoping for as a debut single. Indeed, the band went to the other extreme and offered up what they saw were their three weakest bits of material that between them lasted less than six-and-a-half minutes.
mp3 : James – Folklore
mp3 : James – What’s The World
mp3 : James – Fire So Close
Factory were already renowned for issuing material that wasn’t obviously commercial, but Folklore, as the lead track of a debut single was particularly bonkers. It’s a folk-song, almost sea-shanty like, with minimalist playing that was a long way removed from the indie-pop that many were expecting. On the other hand, the two tracks on the flip side were upbeat belters with a direct lineage back to the sounds of young Scotland on Postcard Records that you can still, all these days later, throw fantastic shapes to on the indie-disco dance floor .
No wonder Factory were excited and they went a long way to ensure they did everything to keep the band happy, issuing the single with a really cheap sleeve design that went against many of their principles and promoting a song whose lyric was a savage attack on the music industry and indeed could be interpreted as a direct attack on the label:-
What would you sell, with the glasses and suit Heart and a soul that won’t wear out That’s not enough, I want what’s inside You took a fish fillet knife and cut right through my eyes
I don’t recall it at the time, but JimOne was given rave reviews in the UK music press with big things predicted for the band. What happened next, however, seemed to sum up just how ill-prepared James were, initially, for life in the music industry. Paul Gilbertson, who had been the main driving force from the outset, was sacked shortly after the debut single and the three songs remain his sole contribution to recorded music. Tim Booth fell seriously ill, not for the first or last time in his life. Jim Glennie, having gone through the pain of being part of the decision to sack his best friend, struggled with everything, and indeed he and Booth ended up joining a sect that placed all sorts of restrictions and limitations on their behaviour and so put the band’s very being in real jeopardy for a while. It would take a full 12 months before the follow-up was recorded, with a further four-month delay before Factory issued it. The success that had been predicted with the release on JimOne wouldn’t come until the 1990s….
JimOne is a very fine release. Folklore is one of those songs that, once you get used to its idiosyncrasies, is a very listenable number and, as I alluded to earlier What’s The World and Fire So Close have always been magnificent as evidenced by how well they have aged. Despite all that, JimOne is not close to being the best 45 ever released by James, but it is indeed, a cracking debut.
And so we venture on into 1988, 1998 and 2008 to see what 45s were sitting at the top of the UK indie charts on the 1st day of each month. This, remember, was the rundown that had been created in 1980 to recognise sales on minor labels, albeit the majors were proving increasingly adept at exploiting loopholes and enabling mainstream artists to somehow qualify for inclusion.
1987 had ended with New Order enjoying a six-week run at the top and they were succeeded in the new year by Depeche Mode‘s 20th single, Behind The Wheel. It, however, lasted just one week at the top before being replaced by this
1 February 1988 : mp3 : The Beatmasters feat. Cookie Crew – Rock Da House
Issued by Rhythm King Records, it was the re-release of a song that had proven to be hugely popular in the clubs in the summer of 87 and is one of the earliest examples of a UK act successfully delivering hip house. I’m quite sure Swiss Adam would have shaken his ass and other parts of his body to this back in the day…
1 February 1998 : mp3 : Oasis – All Around The World
The early love that many had for Oasis had disappeared on the back of the release of the appalling and overblown album Be Here Now. Not that they cared, and indeed releasing a third single from the album was a real two-fingered gesture at the critics…especially one that clocked in at almost ten minutes in length. Worth mentioning that it also reached #1 in the actual singles chart thus becoming the longest number one single in UK history; it was also the last Oasis single to be released on Creation and thus the last time they would be eligible for the indie chart.
1 February 2008 : Adele – Chasing Pavements
The first three indie #1s in 2008 were by The White Stripes, British Sea Power and Madness. The rise to the summit by Adele is the result of her singles and albums being issued by XL Recordings, a bona-fide independent operation who struck gold with the signing of the then teenage singer-songwriter. I do understand and acknowledge why it is that she has been so successful (she has sold in excess of 100 million records worldwide), but I’m not posting this, or indeed any of her others songs (as it is inevitable she will feature in future look backs at the indie hits); for one, I don’t have any of her stuff; for two, I’m a music snob.
There was a flurry of activity over the weekend but Monday and Tuesday provided a barren spell with not much to shout about in terms of goalmouth action.
A few sides have been able to build commanding leads and seem likely to advance into the last 64. Some ties are very much in the balance, with leads swinging back and forth, often in the space of minutes. Here’s how it all stands, as at 7.45pm on Tuesday night.
The Wondermints 9v The Jesus & Mary Chain 21
Joe Strummer 12 v Julian Cope 19
The Pipettes 5 v Lloyd Cole & The Commotions 26
The Jam 24 v T. Rex 7
Billy Bragg 23 v The Faces 7
The Housemartins 22 v Gene 9
Foil 13 v Emiliana Torrini 13
The Jayhawks 11 v The Farmer’s Boys/The Higsons 15
R.E.M. 17 v Radiohead 14
Elbow 7 v The Skids 22
Underworld 7 v Ride 20
Carter USM 21 v Dwight Yoakam 6
Pulp 20 v Tindersticks 10
The The 16 v Simple Minds 14
The Velvet Underground 29 v The National 2
Friends Again 11 v XTC (2) 19
Click here for a reminder of what the full list of songs are. Deadline is Friday midnight. All being well, I’ll announce the results on Saturday morning at the same time as releasing the next 16 fixtures.
Talulah Gosh, featuring the mighty Amelia Fletcher, tend to polarise.
Easily distinguishable from say Motörhead or GG Allin, the band’s output was, and is, often dismissed and marginalised as cute, shambling and, most especially, that reliable kiss-of-death: ‘twee’.
For some, then, huge silly grins are the instant reaction to a TG number. For others, the response is to feel a bit queasy. Not bad going for a band with only 25 songs to their name – and even that number is bolstered by John Peel and Janice Long sessions, and some pretty demo-sounding demos. (At this point it’s worth mentioning that you can scoff the lot on the 2013 Was It Just A Dream? compilation – on Damaged Goods.)
To be fair, the twee accolade/accusation is not so astonishing. This is, after all, a group who pinched their name from a Clare Grogan NME interview (if the internet is to be believed, it seems Clare played a game of combining a favourite actor’s name – Tallulah (despite the double-l) Bankhead? – and a favourite word).
This is a band, also, who titled an early number The Day She Lost Her Pastels Badge, as well as using aliases like ‘Pebbles’ – for Elizabeth Price – and ‘Marigold’ – for Amelia Fletcher – (both vocals and guitar). And you can add to all this a passion for the kind of zooming, chiming guitars, helium vocals and sha-la-la-ing harmonies that make some listeners scream and scream and scream until they’re sick.
The words? They often allude to a world of the group’s own making – a secret land of rainbow hunts, escalators on hills and, in the eponymous single, the mysterious, dreaming Talulah Gosh herself: variously a film and pop star, a top celebrity, but ultimately a figure doomed and blessed to always be herself.
Given all that, it’s no surprise that Talulah Gosh have never been everyone’s beaker of Creamola Foam. Negative reactions are maybe similar to those that greeted the fanzine-led band scene the group helped establish in the later 80s (and the Riot Grrrl genre they went on to influence in the 90s). But even if they’re not your thing at all, TG’s songs – of strawberry hair and spearmint heads, beatnik boys and bringing up babies – annoy the musically macho, and there’s always worth in that.
As a postscript, rising, like a felt-tip phoenix from the day-glo ashes of Talulah Gosh, Heavenly – still-enchanted but more worldly-wise – would emerge in 1990. That band’s records – a terrific line-up of seven singles and four LPs – saw Amelia and pals hop from one spiritual home (53rd & 3rd) to another (Sarah Records). But that’s all maybe for the threat of another ICA. (ed’s note – yes, please!!!)
Purely because it’s quite unusual: what did Marigold and Pebbles do next? The keen will know that Amelia continued in music, post-Heavenly, via Marine Research and Tender Trap – and that in 2014 she wound up with an OBE for services to Competition and Consumer Economics (and indiepop). Pebbles? Only the winner of the Turner Prize in 2012.
For now though, our story whizzes back to 1986, and to the undecorated Marigold and Pebbles of that era, alongside their bandmates Eithne Farry; Mathew Fletcher; Peter Momtchiloff; Rob Pursey and Chris Scott.
But you can call them all Talulah.
Talulah Gosh At Large: a (New) Vinyl Villain imaginary compilation album.
SIDE A
1. Talulah Gosh (single A-side, 1987)
Slow verses. Quick choruses. Talulah’s self-referencing anthem is a corker and, as alluded to already, paints a picture of an elusive, unsolvable character. Just who is the phantom Talulah Gosh? A minor myth insists it’s a thank-you to the band-naming Clare Grogan herself. Let’s hope, though, that the mystery endures – like an indiepop yeti or Loch Ness Monster.
A tamer, whispery session version of this song isn’t as engaging, but it’s still well worth a listen.
2. Testcard Girl (7” single A-side, 1987)
Sounding for all the world like a riot in Hamleys, Testcard Girl muses on boredom and loneliness, and it knows only one speed. But scream (the band certainly do) if you want to go even faster. Interested in the story of the real Test Card (two words) Girl? Just whack the name Carole Hersee into Wikipedia.
3. My Boy Says (Rock Legends: Volume 69 track, 1987)
Talulah Gosh at their most in-love? My Boy Says is giddy and giggly and all those kinds of things that characterise the smitten. A bit like someone who can’t be late for a very important date, the song walks-then-jogs, walks-then-jogs.
4. I Can’t Get No Satisfaction (Thank God) (Where’s the Cougar, Matey? EP track, 1987)
A cynical, somewhat fed-up lyric of the type that perhaps helped characterise Heavenly’s output, I Can’t Get No… sneaks salt into the sugar shaker. Then points and laughs.
5. The Girl With the Strawberry Hair (B-side of ‘Bringing Up Baby’ 7” single, 1987)
Another thundering pace. Carried by Mathew Fletcher’s relentless, driving drums, this is the closing song on Rock Legends: Volume 69 – the band’s original 1988 muddle of singles and B-sides. Rock Legends… would be augmented and superseded by two collections: Backwash (K Records, 1996) and the presumably definitive Was It Just A Dream? (Damaged Goods, 2013). But for a good while …Strawberry Hair is where the needle providing your Talulah fix would, with a slick little lick of goodbye guitar, hit the buffers.
SIDE B
6. Don’t Go Away (B-side of ‘Talulah Gosh’ 7” single, 1987)
What’s so wrong with carrying on? This lyric from the frantic Don’t Go Away could easily have titled this ICA. Bands don’t really have mission statements. That’s a good thing. But if they did, this would probably be the best one ever.
7. Be Your Baby (John Peel session, 11 January 1988)
Like Testcard Girl, here’s another express-train ride. This time the lyrical topic takes a pot-shot at the kind of restricting other-halves who seek to subtly Frankenstein their way to a perfect partner. Discernible amid the tumult are lines about having clothes bought for you, and your haircut and record collection decided by another. Six years later the issue of manipulation would resurface, this time via Heavenly’s ace LP track Itchy Chin.
8. Spearmint Head (John Peel session, 11 January 1988)
The best Talulah Gosh song in the world ever? For that honour, for me, it’d need to go toe-to-toe with Bringing Up Baby and Escalator Over The Hill. This session gem is a real shape-shifter though, and it whips up and down the gears with abandon.
9. Bringing Up Baby (7” single A-side, 1987)
Congratulations Mr and Mrs Gosh: it’s a bouncing baby single. A really splendid song with an opening ten or so seconds that will rot your teeth at twenty yards. Maybe ‘Baby’, with its la-la-la-ing chorus and fizzy, bounding tune is the ultimate Talulah number.
10. Escalator Over The Hill (B-side of ‘Talulah Gosh’ 12” single, 1987)
The curiouser and curiouser Escalator Over The Hill is daydreamy and quite otherworldly – one for all you sleepwalkers out there. From its abrupt opening, wig-out centre and soulful, haunting outro, the overall feeling is one of regret and sadness, helped along by lyrics that glue together the poetic and the mundane:
If age or time should weary you What would you find to remind you Of trains we caught And buses we missed Tickets we bought, taking us through The barrier to The escalator over the hill
I think those are powerful and unusual words and they contribute to my view that Escalator… is unlike any other Talulah Gosh song out there – an authentic indiepop lullaby.
Bit of trivia: Another, unrelated, piece of music of the same name predates this song by at least 15 years. Here’s Wiki’s introduction:
Escalator Over the Hill (or EOTH) is mostly referred to as a jazz opera, but it was released as a “chronotransduction” with “words by Paul Haines, adaptation and music by Carla Bley, production and coordination by Michael Mantler”, performed by the Jazz Composer’s Orchestra.
So now all you fans of chronotransductions can feel well and truly acknowledged. And to any Haines/Bley/Mantler afficionados who’ve landed here by accident: welcome aboard.
strangeways
JC adds:-
I’m surely not alone in wishing that this had arrived in advance of the launch of the ICA World Cup, as there’s every chance that this wonderful collection of songs could have taken on and defeated a number of the teams who will advance to its latter stages. Reference was made to the tamer, whispery session version of a song, and here it is:-
mp3 : Talulah Gosh – Talulah Gosh (Janice Long Session)
Nor was there room on the ICa for this gem, so consider it your bonus track:-
Fruits of Passion were tipped by many to make it big. In some ways, they were on the scene a wee bit to early to have the impact expected as their template for making music would be largely mimicked by Texas to great effect a few years later.
Consisting of Sharon Dunleavy on vocals, Glenn Gibbons on lead guitar, Davey Fullerton on rhythm guitar, Stephen Alexander on bass and Colin Auld on drums, they were responsible for five singles albeit one was a remixed release of the flop debut) and one LP in 85/86, all of them via Siren Records, which was a subsidiary of Virgin Records.
Sharon had a voice that wasn’t a million miles away from Maria McKee and the band could certainly play. They picked up a good number of high-profile support slots back in the day which should have been a great way to increase their fanbase. But for whatever reason, it just never happened.
I’m not a huge fan of their stuff, although I do have a copy of their sole LP in the cupboard. It is a decent enough example of mainstream, female-vocalist pop and there have been many worse acts made it big in the charts.
mp3 : Fruits of Passion – Love’s Glory
This was their sophomore single, released in March 1986.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 