A one-off three-track single on Matinee Recordings back in 1999. As the label says:-
Monterey was Ed, Jon, Jill, Jed and Karen and they lived in New York City. It ended all too soon but we have one sparkling 7″ to remember them always.
It may have been released just as the century was drawing to an end but these kids were going to party like it was 1986.
mp3 : Monterey – Another You
mp3 : Monterey – I Don’t Mind
mp3 : Monterey – Motorway
I’ve previously written extensively about this, my all-time favourite single, and so I won’t waste on your precious time this Sunday morning. Oh, and just to make it 100% clear….it’s the 12″ original version from 1983 that tops my all-time personal chart.
Few things to mention.
Firstly, it hadn’t occurred to me until Hooky mentioned it in his book that this was the first New Order effort without the involvement of Martin Hannett.
Secondly, the re-recording of the song for inclusion in the CD compilation Substance in 1987, is not one fondly remembered by the band. The idea was to try and make it sound more the way it did in the live setting but it ended up stripping out far too many of the lot of the subtle nuances in the 7″ and 12″ originals. It’s not one I’m keen on albeit it is the best known version thanks to its inclusion on the Trainspotting soundtrack.
Thirdly, another new version was recorded by the band in 1998. It’s fairly similar to the earlier 1987 version, but given they didn’t like it to begin with this was perhaps an effort to rectify things. It certainly is a vast improvement but at a touch over 4 minutes is a bit short for my liking. Was made available via the Retro box set.
Finally, a reminder that the 7″ plays at 33-and-a-third rpm and the 12″ rotates properly at 45rpm. Not knowing that caused chaos the first time I played it.
mp3 : New Order – Temptation (7″)
mp3 : New Order – Hurt (7″)
mp3 : New Order – Temptation (12″)
mp3 : New Order – Hurt (12″)
mp3 : New Order – Temptation 87
mp3 : New Order – Temptation 98
Tempting as it was to again offer the chance to enjoy the captivating brilliance of Candyskin, I’ve decided to go with the 1980 debut single, as released on Codex Communications, the label especially formed by Angus Groovy, the band’s manager:-
mp3 : Fire Engines – Get Up And Use Me
Legend has it that the band recorded their entire repertoire in one go when they first entered the studios, and having presented them with a bill for the princely sun of £46, producer Wilf Smarties then advised on what should be the single and what should be its b-side:-
mp3 : Fire Engines – Everything’s Roses
The attention garnered by the single led to them signing with Fast Product on which there would be two singles and one album, all now held up as classics of their time although they bombed on release.
You’ll have spotted that the bands featured throughout this week have all been new, not just to the the blog, but to my own ears. That’s why there’s been such a heavily reliance on the likes of wiki:-
The Softies were a musical duo consisting of Rose Melberg and Jen Sbragia, who are known for their minimal approach to pop music.
Beginning in 1994, the band was intended to be a side project for both artists. Along with an eventual career as a solo artist, Rose Melberg performed with Tiger Trap, Gaze, and Go Sailor. Jen Sbragia was known for her work with the band Pretty Face. As part of the Twee Pop movement centrally located in the Pacific Northwest, they were able to meet at performances for their respective bands.
After Tiger Trap disbanded in January 1994, the pair formed The Softies and recorded the four-song “Love Seat” 7-inch single for Slumberland Records. Calvin Johnson later produced their “He’ll Never Have To Know” single and the band’s debut album It’s Love on the K Records label. They released an eponymous EP on Slumberland Records in 1996. Within months, they would record the full-length Winter Pageant in Melberg’s childhood home in Sacramento, California. In 2000, they released their final collaborative work, Holiday in Rhode Island. It is sometimes speculated that their albums correspond with the seasons of the year as follows: It’s Love (Summer), The Softies (Autumn), Winter Pageant (Winter), Holiday in Rhode Island (Spring).
The Softies almost exclusively use two electric guitars and harmonizing vocal melodies for their recorded tracks and live performances. Their lack of accompaniment, inexcessive production, and brevity of their songs are recurring characteristics of their work throughout their three full-length albums.
The band undertook a few tours, including as an opening act for singer/songwriter Elliott Smith.
Here’s some fine tunes:-
mp3 : The Softies – Love Seat
mp3 : The Softies – I Love You More
mp3 : The Softies – Write It Down
And finally, possibly the most twee and excruciating thing I’m ever likely to post:-
mp3 : The Softies – Together Forever
Yup. It’s a cover of a Rick Astley smash hit!
This fantastic sounding record from 1986 is completely new to me.
I only found it from shoving the words ‘summer’ and ‘twee’ into a search engine to hunt out stuff for this series. Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good…cos it’s more indie-pop than twee….although the cover star is twee personified.
The Summer Suns were from Perth, Australia. They have been described perfectly as playing a melodious blend of ’70s influenced pop and ’60s folk rock.
These are the a and b-sides of their mesmerising and hypnotic debut single. I’ve a feeling my dear friend Aldo will love these; hopefully he won’t be alone:-
mp3 : The Summer Suns – Honeypearl
mp3 : The Summer Suns – Rachel-Anne
From wiki:-
Formed in Providence, Rhode Island in 1987 by Jeffrey Borchardt (aka Jeffrey Underhill) (vocals, guitar), with Peter Reilly (bass, vocals), Christine Jansky (drums), Chris Adams (keyboards), & Claudia Gonson (drums). The band’s debut release was the “Hey Blue Sky!” single on Bus Stop Records in 1989. The band then moved on to Slumberland Records, who issued the next two singles in 1990-1991. Several more releases followed on Summershine, and Four-Letter Words, with the last on K Records.
A compilation of the band’s work was issued in 1997, Time Trials 1987-1995 on Summershine in the US, and Elefant in Spain.
The band were a major influence on many American indie pop and “cuddlecore” bands that followed, with Allmusic stating “their smooth, minimal three-piece pop approach and independent aesthetics served as a template for countless other scenes and projects”.
The band continued on with a new line-up of Jeffrey Underhill (vocals, guitar), Lisa Underhill (vocals, keyboards) and Rafael Attias (guitar), for a new EP on Bus Stop in 2003. The EP was described by the Boston Phoenix as “vintage pop, with flourishes of rootsiness, the Association, and the early electronic pop of Depeche Mode”.
Here’s the debut single along with one of the other early songs that would be released as a 45 in 1991:-
mp3 : Honeybunch – Hey Blue Sky!
mp3 : Honeybunch – Mine Your Own Business
The single seems very reminiscent of The Goon Sax while the two minutes of the second track certainly channels the sound of Bellshill.
From all music:-
The Shermans formed in December 1997 by Mikael Matsson and Torbjorn Thorsen after the dissolution of the band Red Sleeping Beauty. They tapped the shoulder of bassist Chrisster Nilsson and began performing their brand of jangley pop in Sweden. Torbjorn left the band to form Aerospace. Ingela Karlsson then joined as the Shermans’ new vocalist.
The Japanese label Quince soon offered to release a Shermans album. Compiling all of their early singles and compilation tracks, along with new songs, the band released Casual in 1999. Also in 1999, the Shermans were recruited by Shelflife to release their music in the United States. The 2000 release of the album In Technicolor was their first full-length American release. In early 2001, Shelflife re-released Casual for an American audience.
The band continued to experiment with their mixture of modern indie pop, soft rock, and Motown influences. In the spring of 2001, Shelflife released the Falling out of Love EP as a split release with California’s Sky Blue Records. In the fall of that same year, the Happiness Is Toy Shaped CD was released, again on Shelflife.
This is from the 1999 LP Casual:-
mp3 : The Shermans – Summer In Your Heart
While this is from the 2001 LP Happiness Is Toy Shaped:-
mp3 : The Shermans – July In London
Told you I was doing my best to escape November!!
Just dance.
The onset of November means cold, dark and depressing days. I’ve a cunning plan to deal with it, certainly for the first two weeks, and it’s going to be through the power of twee-pop. Songs so light and airy that are totally out of place with the mood that normally envelopes me at this time of year.
I’m totally indebted to Sterling Cale from the now, very sadly, defunct Maggiot Caviar, for the bio on the first band in this short series. He penned these words back in July 2012:-
Here’s a band so obscure they’ve even managed to elude the all seeing eye that is Wikipedia.
Often linked with Trixies Big Red Motorbike, not only because they were considered to be mining similiar musical territory, but through a number of unusual coincidences: both groups were duos inhabiting small islands off the UK’s southern coast (in Twa Toots case the Isle of Sheppey); both groups rarely played live (if at all); both groups emerged at around the same time to record sessions for John Peel after sending him demo tapes; both groups faded back into the obscurity from whence they came soon after.
But unlike Trixies, Twa Toots were known to emerge from their bedrooms on more than one occasion to record their songs in proper studios on the mainland.
The group – Sarah Brown (vocals, guitar, bass, piano), Phillipa Richmond (guitar, vocals) – recorded their debut (and only) Peel session in 1983, augmented by Will Cassell (drums) and Sarah’s dad Frank on trombone. But it wasn’t until the latter part of 1986 that this seven track mini lp quietly slipped out on the Crystal Clear label (Cat. No. CC103) in a pressing of just 250 copies.
Long before the Stone Roses adopted a similiar ploy, it would be followed up five years later by a single, Don’t Send Me Flowers, on the Rootin’ Tootin label, which in turn would be followed up in 1996 by a 15 track compilation album of the same name (featuring mostly previously unreleased material) on the Accident label (who also simultaneously released a Trixie’s comp – more coincidences).
Four of the songs on this lp were not included on the Accident album. The title track and It’s A Lovely Day (both recorded for the 1983 Peel session) were eschewed in favour of alternate demo versions. Shoe Bop and Bewitched have, to my knowledge, never been commercially available since this release.
The opening track is on a cassette somewhere in a big box underneath the spare bed. It’s one of dozens of compilation C90s put together by Jacques the Kipper back in the early 90s when we first hooked up via work and I keep telling myself I should pull the lot out and feature them in a series. Maybe next year….
mp3 : Twa Toots – Please Don’t Play A Rainy Night In Georgia (Peel Session)
And here’s the two tracks from the 1988 single:-
mp3 : Twa Toots – Nobody’s Fool
mp3 : Twa Toots – Don’t Send Me Flowers
There’s nine more similar style posts in the pipeline. Don’t say you haven’t been warned.
Today’s first half is lifted from a posting back in May 2016:-
New Order had released a belter of a debut single in Ceremony. The follow-up hit the shops in September 1981:-
mp3 : New Order – Procession
It was quite similar to a number of the tracks on the debut LP Movement and it wasn’t a huge shift away from the Joy Division sound albeit it did highlight that with Bernard Sumner was a completely different sort of vocalist from Ian Curtis.
I bought the only copy of this single that my local record shop had and it came in a cardboard sleeve with a strange green design which I thought alluded to the title of the b-side. I soon discovered that it had been released in nine different coloured sleeves (as illustrated above) and while I wanted to own every single one of them, there was no way an 18-year-old student, who that month had just started university, was going to waste valuable vodka money on something as unworthy as a 7″ bit of plastic.
The b-side was a precursor to what New Order would become within a few months – a band of their own right delivering electronic dance-music.
mp3 : New Order – Everything’s Gone Green
This is ripped right from vinyl folks and is a bit shorter than the versions generally available on compilation LPs, so please forgive the fact that there’s also a wee skip and a jump about 3mins in…..
In December 1981, Factory Benelux would release a 12″ version of Everything’s Gone Green, backed by two completely new tracks. This merely added to the mystique of the original release with some considering it was a double-A single. The import was ridiculously expensive compared to other 12″ singles of the day, but I still went for it. It was later re=released in 1985 and again in 1986, but I have the original with the solid gray/white label, blue type, and cat number of FBNL 8.
I’ve included all these images as the labeling caused confusion for years. The track names of the B-sides are correctly identified on the label, but, if you look at the sleeve, they are the wrong way round. This would lead to their being misidentified on subsequent releases; for example, the track identified as “Mesh” on the CD version of the Substance CD compilation is in fact “Cries and Whispers”.
mp3 : New Order – Everything’s Gone Green (12″ version)
mp3 : New Order – Cries and Whispers
mp3 : New Order – Mesh
Two hugely enjoyable and much underrated b-sides no matter what name they were given! And better than some of the cuts that were included on Movement.
I’m barging the Saturday series out-of-the-way today so that I can follow-up after the welcome and varied responses to ‘True Confessions.’
First of all, as ever, a huge thank you to everyone for taking the time to fire over your view, thoughts and opinions; as I’ve said on so many occasions, it’s the quality of comments and guest contributions that make this venture all worthwhile. I had a feeling the idea of slaughtering a few sacred cows would prove controversial and so it sort of proved.
One thing I want to make very clear is that I’ve never liked the idea of using the blog to be negative and over the past eleven and a bit years, the percentage of posts that don’t celebrate music has been tiny. I’d even like to think that the ‘Had It. Lost It’ series is in some ways celebratory in that the idea is to reflect on how good, and indeed great, a singer or band had been only for it to go awry.
The concept behind ‘True Confessions’ was similar. This series, if it was going to be as such, was intended to look at one song in isolation by an act that I otherwise liked or admired; it also had the rider that the act had to come from a past era so that I couldn’t simply give the finger to something that was contemporary on the basis that I ‘didn’t get it’. I chose The Model on the basis that I have enjoyed a lot of the music produced over the years by Kraftwerk but had never warmed to their best known and arguably best-loved song, certainly among the general public.
If this comes across as conceited to some of you, then I’m truly sorry. But I do think there has been a slight misunderstanding of what I was hoping to achieve.
In essence, it was like trying to recreate an on-line version of an argument down the pub between folk who care and are passionate about music. This was never just to carp about a bad song as I don’t believe there is such a thing as a bad song – but there are quite a lot of songs that I don’t care for; indeed there are many more songs that I don’t like or enjoy than I have in the vinyl, cd and digital collection inside Villain Towers, but I have no intention of spending time or energy writing about them just for the sake of it.
I’ll try and illustrate this with an example from the comments. Alex considered that “the worst song ever in the history of songs has to be Paul Simon “You Can Call Me Al” which is from the “acclaimed” Graceland album.” I’m not sure if it is quite the worst ever in the history of songs, but it is one that I’ve never taken to. But at the same time, I’ve never really taken much to Paul Simon’s solo career and so don’t feel that I’m qualified to post a negative piece on You Can Call Me Al as I can’t consider it any sort of context.
It was also the case that any song that fell under the microscope for the series had to be one that was, on the face of it, universally acclaimed. As such, I’d never entertain the idea of any Oasis song featuring or the suggestion of Don’t You Forget About Me by Simple Minds; in the case of the former, this was a band that divided opinion from Day 1 and in respect of the latter I think it’s fair to say that, despite its millions of worldwide sales, most Simple Minds fans don’t regard it as the band’s finest moment.
I agree wholeheartedly with Moz’s comment that “one person’s caviar is another’s fish paste sandwich, and we should all respect that”. The key word here is ‘respect’ and that was, I think, what C was alluding to when she said “I like the sound of this series….don’t mind the idea of interspersing the large number of posts about things we like with some about the things we don’t….want to understand the basis behind the opinions I don’t agree with …..as long as it doesn’t become too personal of course”.
Having weighed things up, and slept on it all overnight, I’m going to keep the feature going as an occasional series and will take guest contributions as long as they fit the criteria. That rules out CC doing anything on U2 and SWC is barred from frantically writing why The Smiths suck….but don’t worry too much buddy as I’m likely to make a confession about one of their songs.
One more quick visit to the box by me to wrap things up.
I could very happily go the rest of my life without ever hearing both sides of a particular 45 by Orange Juice. It doesn’t sit easy with me given how much I’ve written about the band over the years and that I was given a namecheck in the credits of the Coals to Newcastle boxset (such things should really be reserved for those who have blind faith!).
As I said in my OJ ICA ,
“The old adage of ‘musical differences’ had been was cited when Steven and James left the band after the debut album but in this instance it was the truth. This had left Edwyn and David to take things forward, augmented by the fantastically talented Malcolm Ross and a Zimbabwe-born drummer called Zeke Manyika but the initial fruits of their labour – the double-sided single of Two Hearts Together/Hokoyo – was a huge disappointment and nothing like any of the old songs. It was a worrying time.”
I actually understated how much I disliked this particular single that was released in August 1982. It sounded as if the band wanted to spend the rest of their careers somewhere down the bill on WOMAD festivals. The songs are a real mishmash of influences, none of which had been part of any of the Postcard era or the debut album. I wasn’t ready for it and to be quite honest, I’ve never ever steadied myself to fully accept it as an Orange Juice recording. It’s really strange as the work Zeke puts into the songs, particularly on Hokoyo, would later be replicated in parts on Soul Mining by The The, and that’s an album I will never allow a bad word to be said about. Maybe it’s about time and place.
mp3 : Orange Juice – Two Hearts Together (7″ version)
mp3 : Orange Juice – Hokoyo (7″ version)
So there you have it. Orange Juice getting slated on T(n)VV.
Who’s next for the confessional box?
Echorich indicated that he liked the idea of B-Side Gems. The old blog was full of such postings – indeed it was launched with the intention of offering up unknown and rarely heard b-sides on a regular basis at a time when the back catalogues of many 80s and 90s artists were obsolete. One of my first postings was a Lloyd Cole track which was impossible to get a hold of without having a 12” single – it’s since surfaced on a boxset of rarities.
mp3 : Lloyd Cole – Butterfly (Planet Anne Charlotte mix)
I’ll try and dig out some b-side postings from the archives and put them up over the upcoming festive period.
Released at the tail end of 2010.
mp3 : The National – Terrible Love (alternate version)
mp3 : The National – You Were A Kindness
This 45 is a different mix from the version which opens the LP High Violet while the b-side was a previously unreleased track.
Sometimes lazy posts are the best posts.
PS : I haven’t gotten round to listening to the band’s new LP Sleep Well Beast on account of thinking that 2013’s Trouble Will Find Me was a bit of a letdown and don’t think I could cope with two disappointing albums in a row. Anyone wanting to write something on it for an end of year feature would be most welcome….
PPS : I’m going very retro over the next two weeks. Tune in on Monday for more details. For some of you, this might be the last straw in what has been 12 months of declining visitor numbers and hits in comparison to previous years!
Once again, this is something that may turn into a regular series but it wholly dependent on reader reaction and offers to contribute further. It’s sort of a sideshow to the ‘Had It. Lost It.’ series.
The idea is to offer up some thoughts on a song that, to most reasonably-minded individuals, is held up as a classic but to the ears of the contributor is completely overrated.
I could kick things off with just about any song ever written and recorded by The Beatles. I do know, and I do fully accept, that they made a bigger single contribution to the development of pop/rock than almost anyone else you care to mention but for some reason or other I haven’t ever taken to them. I don’t have any vinyl or CDs in what is a fairly substantial collection although I do know, thanks to constant exposure to their hits and album tracks throughout my entire life, hundreds of their songs, some of which I do find passable while others just leave me cold.
Liking or not liking a classic can very easily be a generational thing, whether it being down to the song being released years before a listener developed a real interest in music or perhaps it comes from such a new era that the same listener isn’t keeping up with trends. As such, the one rule for any True Confessions features, is the song must be from the era when the contributor lived and breathed music.
My first ‘fess up is that I don’t like The Model, the song with which Kraftwerk conquered the UK charts in 1982.
While my first real love was new wave/post-punk, from which I would fall head over heels for indie-guitar from the early 80s onwards, I was someone who really enjoyed bands that incorporated synths/keyboards into their sound; indeed I think I’ve demonstrated this in a fair number of the blog postings over the years. Kraftwerk, however, are a band that I haven’t ever quite got to grips with, albeit I do have some of their singles on vinyl sitting in the big cupboard. But not The Model.
I haven’t, until now, actually sat down to think why this is the case and even trying to explain it with the sole reliance on the written word seems beyond me; it’s one of those occasions where I could do with a rammy in the pub with some close friends to tease it all out. I’m instead having to settle on an internal word-association exercise and I’m coming up with – Repetitive. Dirge. Off-key. Cold. Annoying. Hypnotic (in that it makes me want to nod off). Repetitive.
I’m even boring myself trying to write about it far less listen to it. And then, just as I get frustrated with myself and think about hitting the delete button as I’m not making much headway, I realise that, compared to other Kraftwerk songs, The Model is actually a novelty number; indeed, it’s almost a p!ss-take of the band and the sounds they were striving to develop in the infant years of electronica. Like most novelty records, the charms, if they exist to begin with, wear off very quickly and it becomes annoying to the point of never wanting to willingly listen to it again (although, wearing my DJ hat, I do accept and acknowledge that it can be the perfect tune for a particular time, place and crowd)
mp3 : Kraftwerk – The Model
Bring on the brickbats.
The latest installment in the monthly series looking back at the songs which were #1 in the indie charts on the first day of the month 30, 20 and 10 years ago. A series that is under threat if too many of the #1’s get in via a loophole exploited by the majors…..
1 November 1987 : mp3 : Fields Of The Nephilim – Blue Water
From all music:-
Of all the bands involved in Britain’s goth rock movement of the 1980s, Fields of the Nephilim were the most believable. The group’s cryptic, occult-inspired songs were sung in a guttural roar by vocalist Carl McCoy. Live appearances were shrouded with dim light and smoke machines, while bandmembers stalked the stage in black desperado gear inspired by western dress. The group was also one of the longest lived of the original goth rock groups, finally breaking up in 1991 when McCoy left for another project.
Fields of the Nephilim formed in 1984, in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, with an original lineup of McCoy, guitarist Paul Wright, his brother Nod on drums, saxophonist Gary Whisker, and bassist Tony Pettitt. The quintet played many live shows and released the EP Burning the Fields in late 1984. Whisker then left the band, just as Peter Yates was added as a second guitarist. Beggar’s Banquet, also the home of goth rockers Southern Death Cult and Bauhaus, signed the Nephilim and released the singles “Power” and “Preacher Man” in 1986. Both did well on the independent charts; “Preacher Man” made it to number two, increasing the expectation for debut album Dawnrazor, which appeared in 1987. The album also did well on the indie charts, but later that year Fields of the Nephilim finally cracked the pop singles chart with “Blue Water.” In June 1988, second album The Nephilim reached number 12 in the pop charts, while the single “Moonchild” made number 28. A live video titled Forever Remain was also released in 1988.
The May 1989 single “Psychonaut” also cracked the Top 40, but the resulting Elizium (1990) proved to be the group’s last studio effort. The live double album Earth Inferno was also released in 1990, and the singles “For Her Light” and “Sumerland (Dreamed)” both charted, but Carl McCoy left the band — and took the name with him — in October 1991. Remaining members Yates, Pettitt, and the Wright brothers added vocalist Alan Delaney and released What Starts, Ends (1992) as Rubicon; McCoy formed Nefilim, and began releasing material, including the 1996 album Zoon. Beggar’s Banquet issued a two-disc retrospective in 1994 titled Revelations. Nothing was heard from the band until 2002 when Fallen appeared. Although the album looked new, it was a collection of outtakes released without the permission of the band. They truly returned in 2006 with Mourning Sun, and played live often during the 2000s and 2010s. Studio recording took place during 2014, and the band shared a pair of singles — “Earthbound” and “Prophecy” — for an album with the working title The Darkness Before Dawn.
1 November 1997 : Backstreet Boys – As Long As You Love Me
Oh dear……it all comes down to 2007 to see if the series will continue into an eighth month…..
1 November 2007 : mp3 : U.N.K.L.E – Hold My Hand
And breathe……………….
U.N.K.L.E. were founded in 1992 by James Lavelle and Tim Goldsworthy. Originally categorized as trip hop, the group once included producer DJ Shadow and have over the years employed a variety of guest artists and producers.
Hold My Hand is from their third album War Stories. It was an LP that again featured a number of guests including Josh Homme, Robert Del Naja, Ian Astbury and The Duke Spirit. This particular single had James Lavelle on lead vocals but Josh Homme was on backing vocals as well as adding some drums. The single was on Surrender All Records, a lebel established by Lavelle to issue material by U.N.K.L.E. and other dance/electronica acts.
Pale Movie very much reminds me of Domino Dancing by Pet Shop Boys given its mix of dance-pop alongside traditional Spanish guitars. It was a fairly brave move by Saint Etienne to go down this road – all of the songs on Tiger Bay, the LP that was released a few months later, was described by Bob Stanley as an album of modern folk songs done in twentieth century styles like techno and dubmix. It didn’t go down all that well at the time with the singles that were lifted from it not doing nearly as well as previous efforts and dance fans being left a bit bemused by it all.
If only the hardcore element had bought the 12″ version of the single for they would have found all sorts of different styles to meet their every whim, including a hugely extended 10 minutes plus version:-
mp3 : Saint Etienne – Pale Movie
mp3 : Saint Etienne – Pale Movie (stentorian dub)
mp3 : Saint Etienne – Pale Movie (secret knowledge trouser assassin mix)
mp3 : Saint Etienne – Pale Movie (lemonentry mix)
I’ve really no idea where the names for these mixes come from…….
Oh and a quick reminder that I’m hoping some of you will come up with postings/contributions for December in which I want to look back at all that was important, relevant and good about music in 2017.
This is why events unnerve me
They find it all a different story
The plethora of books and documentaries, along with one outstanding biopic, means that we are very familiar with the events leading up the suicide of Ian Curtis and how his fellow band mates came to the view that things had to be kept going. But back in 1980/81, those of us who were fans of Joy Division had little or no idea what was going on, relying totally on any snippets of news that we could pick up in the pages of one of more of the weekly music papers.
Until the suicide, Joy Division were very much seen a cult band. Unknown Pleasures had sold around 20,000 copies which was still more than decent for a band on a small and relatively obscure Manchester-based record label. The adulation heaped upon the singer after his death was a big factor in raising the profile of the band and the subsequent rise in popularity. This created a bit of a problem in that New Order, as they had now been renamed, were understandably reluctant to do much in the way of press or media as the dominant topic wouldn’t be ‘What are you doing next?’ but the inevitable inquisition into why the their former frontman had killed himself – and remember…his epilepsy, his messy personal life and his battle with depression wasn’t something that had previously been mentioned or written about – we know so much more now all these years later than we did at the time.
It was against this background that Ceremony was slipped out, almost unnoticed and with very little fanfare, as the debut single in January 1981. I had it on order (boom-boom!) at the local record shop and picked it up a couple of days after its release. I still hadn’t heard it by this point and was secretly pleased when the long-haired rocker behind the counter said it was unlistenable and depressing and wasn’t prepared to play it in the shop for me. It meant I would get to hear it at home, albeit on a record player that was as basic as there was although I had hopes of getting to play it on the ‘big stereo’ if my folks weren’t in. The amazingly effective and affecting bronze-coloured sleeve that looked like some sort of memorial plaque, almost as if it was paying respect to the old band, only added to my excitement as I raced down the road as quickly as I could without running – that would have been uncool and pathetic.
The label on the record gave a writing credit to Ian Curtis as well as the three members of New Order, so it was clearly a song Joy Division had been working on at some stage; in later years we would learn that it was one of the last songs they had demoed just days before the suicide.
The needle hit the groove and I listened in awe to music that was comfortingly familiar albeit it was lacking the vocal was lacking power and authority.
mp3 : New Order – Ceremony
The b-side was, if anything, even more reminiscent of the old band. I was mesmerised.
The single climbed into the charts in the high 30s and so the local record shop got in some more copies, including the 12” in a green sleeve. I bought that too and was marginally disappointed that only the b-side was slightly longer in length.
mp3 : New Order – In A Lonely Place (7″ version)
mp3 : New Order – In A Lonely Place (12″ version)
It was a brilliant debut single. If New Order had wanted to call it quits there and then, I’d have been okay with it. I wasn’t alone in thinking back then that Ian Curtis was the principal songwriter, lyrically and musically, and so if there weren’t many more tunes that he’d been involved with before the suicide, the new band might struggle to match the heights of their first release. Subsequent events proved otherwise…..
Ceremony is not, by a long chalk, the best single ever released by New Order. I reserve that honour for Temptation. But it’s a hugely important and significant 45 for all sorts of reasons…as indeed were the next few singles that the band would release. Which is why, now that I’ve reached the end of the look back at XTC,the Sunday singles focus will now be on Gilbert/Hook/Morris/Sumner.
PS : Part of what I’m intending to do in the series is offer up some of the alternative/re-recorded versions of singles and so, for the sake of completeness, here’s the second and, IMHO, inferior version of the debut, issued in 12″ form in September 1981, and which, unlike the original, features a contribution from Gillian Gilbert:-
mp3 : New Order – Ceremony (re-recorded version)
From wiki:-
Wasp Star (Apple Venus Volume 2) is the fourteenth and final studio album by the English band XTC, released on Cooking Vinyl/Idea Records on 23 May 2000. It is the second volume of the Apple Venus set and reached the UK Top 40 albums chart.
At this point, guitarist and singer Andy Partridge and bassist and singer Colin Moulding were the only two band members left. The duo therefore utilised session musicians on every track to fill in the musical elements that they were incapable of performing themselves. Partridge’s daughter Holly made her singing debut on record singing backup vocals in the song “Playground”.
One single was lifted from the album and as such was the last ever XTC 45 to be given a physical release:-
mp3 : XTC – I’m the Man Who Murdered Love
As farewells go, it’s not that bad. It’s tuneful, catchy and radio-friendly. I certainly would have anticipated it charting if it had been written and recorded earlier in their career.
Here’s yer b-sides:-
mp3 : XTC – I’m the Man Who Murdered Love (home demo)
XTC – Didn’t Hurt A Bit (Home Demo)
Yup….I’ve failed again at the last hurdle. The home demo version of this Colin Moulding song was put on the final single but seems to have been lost in the midst of time for a more-fleshed out version that appeared on the compilation Coat Of Many Colours that was released in 2002 and whose sleevenotes revealed it was an outtake for the Nonsuch album back in 1991/92:-
mp3 : XTC – It Didn’t Hurt A Bit
One final postscript.
It seems XTC released a download only single in 2005 that was later included on a very limited box set entitled Apple Vinyls that was released in December 2006.
This box set consisted of thirteen 7 inch singles compiling the 23 tracks from Apple Venus [Volume One] and Wasp Star [Apple Venus Volume Two] together with three previously download-only songs – the afore-mentioned single Where Did The Ordinary People Go? plus Say It and Spiral.
Copies of Apple Vinyls now retail on the second-hand market for more than £200. I’ll round off the series with these as they did, technically, feature on 7″ vinyl:-
mp3 : XTC – Where Did The Ordinary People Go?
mp3 : XTC – Say It
mp3 : XTC – Spiral
The last of these seems a wholly appropriate and wonderful way to close off this series. A largely unheralded and little known number that encapsulates everything that made XTC such an important and essential part of music over a 30-year period and which could be the catechist for T(n)VV.
Spiral, torn from the tone arm
Waking up the track
Dormant in the black valley of the vinyl
Spiral, dug by the diamond
Running it around, turn it into sound
Entering my spinal
Got to play all my favourite 45’s
Stacked way up high
Well everyday I spin away my 45’s
Help me to fly
Spiral
Spiral, ripped from the record
Roll into the room, dissipate the gloom
Happiness eternal
Spiral, pulled from the plastic
Angel choirboys, devilish the noise
Heavenly infernal
Got to play all my favourite 45’s
Ten thousand times
Every day I spin away my 45’s
Help me to climb up
Spiral
Spiral, torn from the tone arm
Waking up the track
Dormant in the black, valley of the vinyl
Spiral, dug by the diamond
Running it around, turn it into sound
Entering my spinal
Got to play all my favourite 45’s
Oh how they give
Every day I spin away my 45’s
How else do I live?
Hope you’ve enjoyed this series. Stayed tuned for news of who will be appearing next in this particular slot.
with help from wiki:-
Finley Quaye (born 25 March 1974, Edinburgh, Scotland) is a Scottish musician. He won the 1997 Mobo Award for best reggae act, and the 1998 BRIT Award for Best Male Solo Artist.
He is the youngest son of jazz musician Cab Kaye, the half-brother of guitarist Caleb Quaye, and half-brother of jazz musician and ethno-musicologist Terri Quaye. His father was born in London, but considered himself as African. Although known as Cab Kaye, his full name was Nii Lante Augustus Kwamlah Quaye and he was a Chief of the Ga tribe centralized in Jamestown, Accra, Ghana. Kaye was the son of the pianist Caleb Jonas Quaye a.k.a. Mope Desmond, who was born in Accra, Ghana. Finley did not grow up with his father and only found out, in his twenties, about his father’s history as a musician.
Finley Quaye was inspired early on in his childhood by jazz musicians. He lived in London with his mother, who would take him with her to Ronnie Scott’s jazz club to catch performances of American jazz musicians touring Europe. He started recording in the early 90s, gaining some recognition for work alongside dance act A Guy Called Gerald. In 1997, he came to prominence with a number of Top 10 singles and the album Maverick A Strike which sold in millions in the UK and led to all sorts of awards over the next 12 months.
His star quickly waned with albums around and just after the turn of the century yielding very little returns. He has spent much of the past two decades living in the USA but he made the news back here in 2012 when first of all he was found guilty of aggravated assault in Edinburgh for which he was sentenced to 225 hours of unpaid work, while a few months later he was declared bankrupt with a tax debt of £383,000.
All a bit of shame really:-
mp3 : Finley Quaye – Your Love Gets Sweeter
Time does strange things to pop history.
There are many instances where the debut single has proven to be the defining moment of a band or singer’s career but more often than not it simply lays down a marker for bigger and better things further down the line. Many years later, said band or singer, having enjoyed an extended career, undergoes an extensive critical reassessment, part of which usually involves a fresh consideration of that crucial debut. I think Talking Heads are a great illustration of what I am getting at.
It was away back in February 1977 that the then trio released Love → Building on Fire as a single. It predated their debut album by more than six months and indeed was already considered such an ‘old’ song that it was left off said debut, albeit it seemed to be part of the regular set list for many years thereafter. The debut LP was the piece of plastic that took a by now four-piece Talking Heads to an audience well beyond the confines of NYC, with songs like Uh-Oh Love Comes To Town, The Book I Read, Don’t Worry About The Government and, above all else, Psycho Killer, making a huge and immediate impact. Most polls which look back at, and list, great debut albums usually have Talking Heads : 77 mentioned somewhere in the piece.
All of which somehow makes Love → Building on Fire (or Love Goes to Building on Fire which has always been easier to type) something of an afterthought when looking back at the band’s career. I first noticed increasing mentions of the debut 45 once it became clear that the band, having broken up, had no intention of ever reforming. It was almost as if those who were penning the valedictory pieces wanted their readers to think or believe that the writer had been ahead of the curve back in 1977 and had predicted or expected greatness and longevity on the back of the first few minutes of music that Talking Heads had ever released. And yes, there were some who argued that the debut was the watershed for the band on the basis that they lost something once they moved out of CBGBs.
It’s all, of course, utter nonsense.
Yes, Love → Building on Fire is a wonderful way to announce your arrival; it’s an entertaining and cracking three minutes of music, which is why I’m featuring it in this series; but Talking Heads would deliver so many better moments over the ensuing years.
mp3 : Talking Heads – Love → Building on Fire
mp3 : Talking Heads – New Feeling
Only it’s anything but:-
mp3 : Carter USM – Rubbish
It’s actually quite astonishing to look back and realise how Carter USM did something so basic yet made themselves one of the biggest (certainly in the UK) and most exciting live bands of their time. It was, when you boil it all down, just two blokes who made a lot of noise with guitars together with some pre-programmed keyboards and drums as background to shouted out lyrics in the most London of accents. On paper it all sounds a bit naff. On record, it was hugely engaging listening – pop music with a social conscience – but live it was just a crazy communal sing-along and pogo-fest. The early 90s gigs were among the most frantic, energetic and fun I’ve ever experienced.
Rubbish was the band’s third single back in June 1990. It was, like their previous two singles, a flop but within a year they had cracked the singles and album charts. Rubbish was re-released in January 1992 and reached #14.
It’s b-side was and still is one of the greatest ever cover versions:-
mp3 : Carter USM – Rent
The Pet Shop Boys beautiful love song turned completely on its head; samples galore and added lyrics to detail the misery of depending on the welfare state to provide the most basic and essential of life’s needs. The final ninety seconds or so are among the angriest bits of music you will ever listen to as Jim Bob screams out the questions contained in the complicated paperwork that needed to be filled in to get a housing allowance while Fruitbat sarcastically croons ‘it’s so easy’. A reminder of the fact that the Thatcherites and her successor Tories were utter bastards to those who were poor.
My last ICA on The Fall featured the group’s fourth decade, a period of stability anchored by Elena Poulou on keyboards. This ICA (1997-2006) captures The Fall in flux, from 1998’s onstage fistfight to the “traitors” who left Mark and Elena during a 2006 US tour. It’s all in the books: The Fallen, Mark E. Smith‘s Renegade, and memoirs by Brix, Stephen Hanley, and Simon Wolstencroft. A book on Manchester music by Paul Hanley is forthcoming.
This ICA showcases an exciting decade of sonic innovation. I think Fall members Dave Bush and Julia Nagle in particular brought a level of technical sophistication in keyboards and programming that expanded the Fall’s sound. Nagle is the only constant (apart from Smith himself) for the first five of these ten years.
1. Inch – the production team DOSE had worked with Mark on the single Plug Myself In, but DOSE was fired during the recording of the 1997 album “Levitate”. Inch begins with a glimpse of Smith’s methods as a composer: how does a man who plays no instrument communicate to musicians and producers what he wants to hear? Inch appeared on “Levitate” as the chaotic 4 1/2 Inch. This DOSE mix was not released until 1999.
2. Ten Houses Of Eve – kicking off with a jungle beat, Ten Houses was the opening track on “Levitate”. This remix is from 1998’s “Masquerade” EP. These were the last recordings to include the rhythm section of Steve Hanley and Karl Burns. Burns joined The Fall in 1977, Hanley in 1979.
3. Birthday Song – a fascinating departure from whatever one might consider “normal” for The Fall. Julia Nagle composed a stately instrumental and challenged Smith to write a love poem. Perhaps the only Fall song remotely like it is the touching Bill Is Dead. Birthday Song appeared on 1999’s “The Marshall Suite”.
4. Shake-Off – a more representative selection from “The Marshall Suite”, an album that generated a near hit with Touch Sensitive. The lyrics to Shake-Off touch on a range of unappealing topics: fixing a bathroom cistern, “eyeball injecting” chemicals, and a reunion of Simple Minds.
5. Dr. Buck’s Letter – Julia Nagle’s last album with The Fall was “The Unutterable” (2000). There are several outstanding cuts on that record, but Dr. Buck’s Letter is most beloved by fans. In the latter half of the track, Mark E. Smith reads from a magazine feature by Pete Tong, and cannot contain his amusement.
6. Crop-Dust – one of the few highlights of 2001’s “Are You Are Missing Winner”, an album recorded on the cheap with musicians from a local band called Trigger Happy. Many consider it one of the worst Fall albums. “Are You Are” is similar to the most recent Fall LP (“New Facts Emerge”) in that both were recorded after the departure of a lover, and both have an aggressive garage rock edge untempered by digital instruments. Crop-Dust, however, is built on a sample from garage rock progenitors The Troggs.
7. Janet vs Johnny – Elena Poulou joined The Fall in 2002 (as manager, keyboard player and Mark’s third wife). Poulou first appeared on the EP “The Fall Vs 2003″, which contains this psychedelic tune. A revised version entitled Janet, Johnny + James appeared on “The Real New Fall LP”. PJ Harvey has performed the song in concert.
8. The Past #2 – “The Real New Fall LP” (2003) has a strange lineage. It was originally entitled “Country On The Click”, but after the album leaked, the songs were re-recorded. There are also differences between the UK and US versions of the album. In any configuration, it ranks as one of the best long players in The Fall’s career. The Past #2 makes wonderful use of call-and-response vocals (as does the album’s centerpiece Theme From Sparta FC and earlier songs such as Eat Y’Self Fitter).
9. Blindness – the 2004 and 2005 albums “Interim” and “Fall Heads Roll” were disappointments. But the track Blindness was widely hailed by the long-suffering faithful. It conjures the menacing tone and relentless drive of the band’s Rough Trade era. This version of Blindness is from the vinyl pressing of “Fall Heads Roll”, which differs from the CD.
10. Higgle-dy Piggle-dy – from a 2006 tribute to The Monks. This is the third Monks song covered by The Fall.
BONUS TRACK: Family Feud – from the Von Südenfed album “Tromatic Reflexxions“, a 2007 collaboration between Mark E. Smith and Mouse On Mars which followed MES’ appearance on the Mouse On Mars single Wipe That Sound.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 