I believe it’s TVV pal Jacques the Kipper who sometimes rolls his eyes at our, er, nostalgic appreciation of bands gone by. I’m guilty of that — I did contribute an ICA about Spoon, who are still active, but the first ones I wrote were about XTC and the Stranglers, bands that began in the 1970’s. So here are a handful of contemporary charged particles just so’s you don’t get the impression that I’m not paying attention to what’s happening musically these days.
With apologies for this very late amendment to today’s post.
Many thanks for such kind words in the comment section following the ICA on The Skids. For those of you who are new or newish to this corner of the internet, yesterday’s posting was the 1,500th on The (New) Vinyl Villain which came into being in July 2013. Prior to that, there was The Vinyl Villain which came into existence in September 2006 before being brutally murdered at the hands of google almost seven years on after 2,278 posts, many of which were quality contributions from guests all around the world.
I still find it hard to come to terms with what happened when google shut down the old blog without any sort of advance warning on the grounds that my corner of cyberspace was impinging on the ability of singers and bands to make an honest living. The most galling thing about it all was that millions of words expressing love and appreciation for songs were consigned to the dustbin without any consideration of their worth.
So…. the next landmark round these parts will be post # 1,722 – the 4,000th post all told. I’d love it to be a guest post if anyone is up for it (looking like the turn of the year or thereabouts at the current rate of things).
OK….that’s enough of the nostalgia and self-congratulations. Here’s the latest lot of inane meanderings………
………..A while back I finally got round to picking up C87, a 3xCD box set released last year by Cherry Red Records, a 74-track compilation of material that was released across different indie labels in 1987. As with so many of these things, the quality is a bit hit’n’miss, although for the most part it is very enjoyable, and given that this was a year when I more or less switched off from music then there’s a lot of things I’m discovering for the first time.
The CD86 series was one of the most popular ever run on this blog and so I’m going to follow it up, belatedly, with an occasional series featuring songs from C87 but on the proviso that the singer or band will be making a debut here.
First up is Track 24 on CD1. Here’s what the info booklet says:-
Borrowing their name from an Incredible String Band album, Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters comprised singer Emily Green, guitarist Sandy Fleming and twelve-string guitarist Gordon Dawson. The band signed to Dan Treacey’s Dreamworld label in 1986 and set about recording their debut with the help of Phil King and drummer John Wills (both ex Servants).
‘Love Is Blue’ captured the band’s unashamedly ’60s-styled sound, as did one of the B-sides, Treacey’s short garage punk ditty ‘Don’t Ask My Name’. A self-titled mini-album appeared in 1987 (on Constrictor) followed by Trash Mantra (produced by Dan). 1989’s The Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters, released on Voxx, assembled their Dreamworld recordings, before Emily went off to record with Swedish act Boy Omega.
mp3 : Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters – Don’t Ask My Name
I’ve managed to track down the A-side of the single:-
mp3 : Hangman’s Beautiful Daughters – Love Is Blue
So here we are. Post number 1500 since the blog was raised from the dead after being killed off by Google.
A huge thanks to all of you out there for the amazing support you’ve given, and a special word to those of you who have contributed guest postings, offered comments or just encouraged me through some nice e-mails. I wouldn’t be motivated to do all this if wasn’t for the fact it is being enjoyed and responded to so positively each and every day.
I was going to mark it with a look at a Northern Soul single but that plan fell through as it was featured recently over at Brian’s place. So I’m turning to Plan B with an ICA from The Skids, one of the best bands to emerge out of the post-punk era.
They played Glasgow a few weeks back as part of a 40th Anniversary Tour. I didn’t get along as I was otherwise very happily occupied with the visit of Dirk, Walter, Adam and the afore-mentioned Brian along with meeting up with and enjoying the company of Drew (whom it was gave me the Northern Soul 45 that I was intending to feature today), CC, Aldo, Strangeways and Comrade Colin. But a couple of other friends went along to The Skids, and come Monday reported that it had been outstanding; seemingly Richard Jobson still has it in spades while the band, consisting of Bill Simpson (bass), Mike Baillie (drums) and the father and son combo of Bruce and Jamie Watson on guitar, delivered a blisteringly loud and perfectly paced set that also paid fitting tribute to the contributions of the late Stuart Adamson.
The thing is, just after The Skids broke up in 1982, a compilation LP entitled Fanfare was released by Virgin Records and its 12 tracks (six on each side of the vinyl) is quite tough to better. So Fanfare is your ICA today for nothing else other than the fact it also came with these liner notes composed by John Peel…and so I can claim he’s written something for this blog!
John Peel writes….
“Richard Jolson (vocals)
Alexander Plode (guitar)
Stuart Adamson (guitar)
Thomas Bomb (drums)
Yes, Jolson. This, according to a mimeographed sheet from No Bad Records of Dunfermline, was the original line-up of the Skids. The anonymous writer of this press release, which accompanied the first Skids single, was of the view that the band was ‘destined for the top’, and he was almost right. To quote further from his thoughtful paragraphs, the Skids were ‘causing a substantial “BUZZ”,’ and this time he was spot on. This was early 1978 and for some months Scottish fanzines had been noising abroad the excellence of Messrs. Jolson, Plode, Adamson and Bomb, remarking that they had moved beyond the confines of pure punk and were evolving into something entirely of their own devising, something that was, or so it was hinted, identifiably Scottish.
Thus it was that when No Bad NB1, ‘Reasons’, ‘Test Tube Babies’, and ‘Charles’, reached the sink-pits and stews of London, the Skids already enjoyed the first murmurings of a reputation, and when the band followed the record south they must have hoped for an enthusiastic reception. Back home they had been heard on Radio Forth, for Heaven’s sake, and had supported the Stranglers in Edinburgh, and when they clambered on stage in a Stoke Newington pub they must have been disappointed at the mute, incurious glances of the few regulars which greeted them. Happily, my old brave ones, this performance was enough to win the Skids an outing on Radio 1 and a subsequent approach from Virgin Records.
The rest, I am tempted to say, is history.
First out of the Virgin gate was ‘Sweet Suburbia’. ‘This white vinyl record has a weird gimmick’, warned the company’s effervescent promotions department mysteriously, adding ‘You’ll like it’.
Consumers did, but only a bit, as the record pounced on the number 70 spot in the charts but then fell away into nothingness. ‘The Saints Are Coming’ improved on this, clawing its way as high as 48.
Next on our turntables was ‘Into The Valley’, released in February 1979, which reached the top ten, although the truly discerning preferred the reverse, ‘TV Stars’, assuredly the only record to date to bring together in song the stars of ‘Coronation Street’ and ‘Crossroads’ along with Kenny Dalglish, the greatest living Scotsman, and this typist.
There were further hit singles, stirring LPs, and it wasn’t too long before the music weeklies, having come to terms that Richard Jolson was really Richard Jobson, spotted that he was also a likeable, gregarious, and highly quotable chap. ‘Jobbo’, as we had to learn to call him, has never been backward at coming forward, and he took to this notoriety with definite enthusiasm, using it to his own advantage and diversing into poetry and the theatre.
After the Skids third LP, ‘The Absolute Game’, Stuart Adamson, by now a highly individual guitarist, resigned his commission, leaving Richard, brother to Meadowbank Thistle’s goal-hungry striker, John Jobson, to soldier on with bassist Russell Webb.
On the stage, amid locker-room gossip that he never simulated anything, no siree, Richard was to be spotted spending evenings lying on top of the celebrated ingenue, Honey Bane, and he could be observed at artistic soirees declaiming his and other folks’ poems in a firm and manly voice. Contemporary with this arts-lab activity Richard was working with Russell on ‘Joy’, an LP in which they ferreted back into Scottish history and culture. Despite a warm review from the Guardian, reaction to ‘Joy’ was pretty frosty and shortly after release the Skids were no more.
Brushing aside with a contemptuous snort all the usual stuff about legacies of fine music, the great sadness in the demise of this most admirable of bands lies, for me, in that in his search for a Celtic identity and sound, Richard Jobson (nee Jolson) overlooked the fact that it was precisely these elements that distinguished the Skids from the post-punk herd in the first place.
If you don’t believe me, listen again.”
John Peel
And now….here’s my own inconsequential words on each song….
Side A
1. Into The Valley
One of my favourite singles of all time. Still puts a smile on my face every time those first few distinctive notes are played. Richard Jobson has stated that the indecipherable lyrics are about the recruitment of Scottish youths into the army and more specifically about a friend who had been killed on a tour of duty in Northern Ireland. I prefer to think that it is actually a tribute to High Valleyfield (aka The Valley), a former mining village just outside of Dunfermline whose residents have long endured a reputation for hard living.
2. Working For The Yankee Dollar
The band’s sixth single and their final Top 20 hit (not that anyone knew that at the time).
Days in Europa, the band’s second album had confused me a bit. It wasn’t remotely like the debut and while it contained a few were moments that I really liked, it wasn’t an easy listen. It wasn’t helped by the fact that its closing track was in fact the opening track played backwards with a highly serious semi-spoken Jobson vocal that made no sense, even when read from the sheet provided with the LP.
There was a bit of a backlash to the album, partly from the sound that producer Bill Nelson has delivered, but also from the fact that sleeve was alleged to have incorporated artwork associated with Nazism. Virgin Records quickly announced that the LP was going to be remixed and re-released within a new sleeve. The first signs of the remix was a totally different and beefier take on Working For The Yankee Dollar. I loved how much better it sounded, particularly the guitar work from Stuart Adamson, so much so that for about two weeks I thought it was the greatest record ever written. Bear in mind I was just 16-and-a-bit- years of age and my tastes, like my hormones, were all over the place. My tastes have evolved somewhat but I still think this is a great piece of work.
3. Sweet Suburbia
The debut single for Virgin Records in September 1978 and which, true to the punk ethos, was kept off the debut LP. As Peel reminds us, it only hit #70 when it was worthy of so much more. The lyrics of the final verse, from about 1:45 to 1:57 are priceless…
Birth and birth and birth and birth and birth Live and live and live and live and live Mate and mate and mate and mate and mate Die and die and die and die and die
4. A Woman In Winter
There were only 18 months between Into The Valley and A Woman In Winter, and yet the latter sounds as if it is a band who are five or ten years down the road in their career such is the quantum leap in sound and ambition. The title of this song would also be the name of a movie directed by Richard Jobson in 2006 – footage from which would be used as the basis for the promo video for the Arab Strap single Speed-Date.
5. Masquerade
The prompt follow-up to Into The Valley was surprisingly not lifted from the debut LP as the band were already well on their way to the follow-up LP by which time they had lost a drummer. It’s maybe not quite their finest moment and it hasn’t dated too well, but it still has that great one-word shouty chorus to get the juices flowing.
6. The Saints Are Coming
It doesn’t matter that U2 and Green Day got their paws on this many years later with their versions raising monies for victims of Hurricane Katrina (the song was chosen partly for its lyric about storms and drowning and partly because the NFL team in New Orleans are The Saints).
This is a belter of a new wave anthem. An absolute belter. If the band had recorded this and then broke up without anything else seeing the light of day, it would be high up on the list of cult hits.
Side B
1. Animation
The re-mixing of Days In Europa LP also saw the release of the updated version of Animation which was regarded as one of the strongest songs to emerge from the process. To the surprise of many, including this fan, it stalled at #56so becoming the first flop single in a long while.
2. Out Of Town
Lifted from the third LP The Absolute Game, this really had the potential to be a great radio-friendly single but the band insisted on more experimental and less typical cuts being lifted as 45s.
3. T.V. Stars and 4. Of One Skin (live)
Track 3 on Side B is one of the greatest and funniest b-sides ever recorded. This wasit as captured at the Marquee in London on 1 November 1978. It is still played live in the current shows although many of the names have been updated to make it more contemporary. But the chorus remains “Albert Tatlock”. Overseas and younger readers can click here to find out more about our Albert….
It segues straight into another live track, this time from the Hammersmith Odeon show in London on 20 October 1980 as part of the tour to promote The Absolute Game.
Of One Skin was originally a b-side to The Saints Are Coming as well as bring on the debut LP Scared To Dance; it was a real joy that this was included on Fanfare and to be honest was one of the main reasons I bought it back in the day.
5. Charade and 6. Circus Games
Once again, the decision was taken to weld these two tracks with no gap between them.
I remember being disappointed by Charade on its release as it felt a bit of a con to follow up a 45 entitled Masquerade with one that had a similar sounding word. It’s still my least favourite single of theirs and probably wouldn’t have made the cut in a standard ICA.
Circus Games was the lead single off The Absolute Game and the last time the band would crack the UK Top 40 singles chart in July 1980.
I don’t know why, but this song caused quite an emotional reaction within my then 17-year old self. Maybe it was the use of the kids choir on backing vocals; maybe it was that the lyric seemed to convey a really sad and epic tale although I couldn’t quite work out what it was meant to be about; or maybe it was just that the guitar playing, which seemed to come from a totally different place than any of my other heroes of the day, just got into my brain and caused a reaction I wasn’t expecting. One of their most enduring songs and a perfect way to end the ICA. Except….
BONUS E.P.
1. Charles
2. Reasons
3. Test-Tube Babies
The three-track debut on No Bad Records, recorded in October 1977 and released in February 1978; and as John Peel reminds us above, attributed to Richard Jolson on vocals; this is a different version of Charles than that which would appear on Scared To Dance a few months later.
One of the most sought-after artefacts in the history of indie-pop is the debut single by The Sea Urchins, released in August 1987.
Not only is Pristine Christine a ridiculously good piece of music, it is also the single with which Sarah Records was launched. I said a bit more when I featured the single back in 2014 pointing out at the time that the sole copy up for sale had an asking price of more than £300. The growing market in vinyl over recent years has increased the asking price – there are currently four available on Discogs as I type this and the going rate is now £450. That’s the sort of price that Falling and Laughing, the very rare first single on Postcard Records was going for a few years ago – you can now expect to pay as much as £700.
You could always look to pick up The Sea Urchins second single, the eighth 45 to be released on Sarah.
mp3 : The Sea Urchins – Solace
The six members of the band were hardly prolific. It was a full ten months after Pristine Christine before Solace reached the shops. And listening to it nowadays, it hardly seems worth bothering about. It’s distinctly average fayre and doesn’t come close to matching the majesty of the debut….indeed it’s the sort of indistinct near-tuneless effort that dogged a lot of now thankfully forgotten bands who emerged out of the C86 scene. Although I will conceded there’s a decent guitar solo of about 25 seconds length some two-thirds of the way through the song.
The b-side isn’t anything to write home about either; the annoying sound of twee:-
mp3 : The Sea Urchins – Please Rain Fall
Will still cost you upwards of £40 for a copy mind you.
I’ve said before that I didn’t really latch on properly to The Wedding Present until I heard Kennedy being played ay high volume in a record shop. But after that, it was enjoyable going back and listening to the earlier material.
I really liked the song Getting Nowhere Fast, one of their previous b-sides on a 12″ single and included on the CD of George Best, and was intrigued when I spotted, from the fact that it wasn’t a David Gedge composition, that it was a cover version. But the names ‘Alan, Evans, Swift, Oldroyd’ meant nothing to me and in the pre-internet days couldn’t readily be looked up.
It was to be some time before I learned that the original had been by a Leeds band called Girls At Our Best, released in 1980. Even when furnished with that information, I was still none the wiser. Eventually I got to hear the original, via someone putting it on a cassette for me, and fell for its charms. By this time however, it was impossible to track down a copy and it would take until the digital age before I got a decent version without any lo-fi hissing.
Girls At Our Best were Judy Evans (vocals), Jez Alan (guitar), Terry Swift (bass) and Chris Oldroyd (drums) and who formed in 1979 out of two other Leeds bands, S.O.S and The Butterflies.
Getting Nowhere Fast was their debut effort, self-financed and released in April 1980 on their own label Record Records following which Rough Trade put out a second single entitled Politics in November 1980. The drummer then left the band just as they signed to Happy Birthday Records for whom there were two singles and an album, Pleasure, in 1981. The band had enough of a following for the album to reach #60 in the charts but I just can’t recall it or them at all.
According to my big book of indie songs, there was a further single in May 1982 entitled Heaven and released on God Records but there’s no listing on Discogs which means it must be very rare indeed. The band split not long after but with interest in them again on the back of the TWP cover, Strange Fruit in May 1987 would release a Peel Sessions EP that had been broadcast in February 1981.
Here’s the two sides of the debut single:-
mp3 : Girls At Our Best – Getting Nowhere Fast
mp3 : Girls At Our Best – Warm Girls
And here’s the cover, originally on the b-side of the 12″ of Anyone Can Make A Mistake:-
The third and final single released from English Settlement didn’t get anywhere near the charts. It’s a song with a sound that harks back a little while to the Black Sea era and was slightly at odds with the more acoustic and gentle material on the current album. But then again, its a tune totally befitting the tale of a nasty right-wing hooligan activist and a family who wouldn’t be out-of-place on Respectable Street:-
mp3 : XTC – No Thugs In Our House
Only released as a 7″ single, it came with elaborate packaging with the sleeve opening to form a theatre while you could utilise cartoon characters to re-enact the song lyrics which were re-produced in full on the reverse, along with to whom each line was attributed, in what was described as “No Thugs In Our House: A musical in three acts by XTC.”
You’ll also be able to make out from the back of the sleeve that three songs were made available on the b-side of the single:-
mp3 : XTC – Chain of Command
mp3 : XTC – Limelight
mp3 : XTC – Over Rusty Water
You’ll also see that the first two tracks were from the free single given away with the first pressings of Drums and Wires and therefore would already be well-known and likely owned by most long-standing fans. The last track is an ambient instrumental lasting less than 90 seconds and is, again, very much for completists.
Maybe the fact that so little of the music was new contributed to the fact that the single sold poorly.
A touch of good fortune with the timing this week with this post falling on the weekend on the 2017 Eden Festival which takes place on the south-west of Scotland. One of the acts performing is Dumb Instrument and there’s a great bio provided on the featival website as you will now see:-
Dumb Instrument are like a pair of old shoes that you can’t throw out because they’re just too damn comfortable. It doesn’t matter how old or smelly we get, we just keep sticking around doing a sterling job. The band formed in 2006 when songwriter and composer Tom Murray was offered a slot at T in The Park Festival on the strength of 3 songs which we had written and released earlier that year. Unaware that Tom was a one man band, and had brought his tracks to life with samples or session musicians, he quickly pulled together a band of ‘real musicians’ to play the gig which much to his delight met with fantastic reviews. What appeared to be a one-off gig led to the band appearing on BBC2’s ‘The Music Show’ soon afterwards and the band decided to stay on with Tom and a fully formed Dumb Instrument was born. Over the subsequent years they have performed over 300 gigs around the UK everywhere from someone’s living room to large festivals.
The band have co-written and released 2 albums, 8 EP’s and 2 singles. Early in Dumb Instruments career they were signed by an independent record label through which they released their first single ‘Songs Ya Bass Vol 1’. Tom Murrays lyrically gritty (often tragically funny) song writing style was rewarded shortly afterwards with the song ‘Reverse The Hearse’ (taken from the single) being chosen as Scotland’s Burnsong award winner of 2007. This resulted in the band performing live at the BBC studios for the first time.
The album ‘Nobody Know’s What It’s Like To Be Me’ followed in 2008 which met with more music industry recognition. Following live sessions on XFM Scotland and BBC Radio Scotland the band made it onto BBC Radio 1 for the first time with track ‘The Exterminating Angels’ played by Vic Galloway.
The focal point of a Dumb Instrument song is most definitely the lyric, with diverse subject matter negotiated in each record, from wheelie bin theft to mortality. Stylistically the band weave hints of disco, ragtime, gypsy or even latin through the lyric and, in a live playing sense, the band will take to the stage as an 8 piece.
Recently Dumb Instrument won ‘The Billy Kelly Song Writing Award’, which has enabled the band to release their most recent album ‘The Silent Beard’. The single ‘Suffering From Scottishness’ taken from the album has helped to popularise the band further after having been adopted by the Scottish referendum’s YES campaign amongst others. Last year the band played numerous radio session’s including 2 BBC sessions one of which was live from Potterow on Janice Forsyth’s Culture Studio as part of the BBC’s Edinburgh Festival coverage. Dumb Instrument finished the summer in style by headlining the Verb Tent at last years Belladrum Festival in Inverness. The band have recently started releasing a new EP on the first day of each month.
———————
They were the band at which myself and Comrade Colin first finally met up in January 2008.
If you’ll indulge me, here’s the story as posted before on the this and the old blog:-
Dumb Instrument will always have a special place in my heart for it was their gig on 3 January 2008 at the 13th Note in Glasgow that I finally met Comrade Colin in the flesh. The bloke who had been the single-biggest inspiration for me starting up a blog has invited me alongs to catch a live set from an act he had included the song ‘Reverse The Hearse’ in his best of run-down for 1997. As I blogged this next day….
“To be honest, I was initially more excited about finally, after all this time, hooking up with Colin (previous attempts to meet and blether had fallen through) than the gig itself. I’m delighted to reveal ladies and gentlemen, that Colin is indeed a true comrade in arms – every bit as witty, erudite, charming and entertaining in the flesh as he is in print – and I reckon we would have been quite happy just sitting in the bar talking about all sorts of things (but mostly music).”
The gig also turned out to be a hugely enjoyable event and I bought this single on the night.
Dumb Instrument describe their output as ‘Jakey Rock’ – and state that it fuses the ideals of ‘Jakeys’ and ‘Rock’ into one nice genre which is accessible to all.
Overseas readers might wonder what ‘jakey’ means. Well, it’s a bit of Scottish slang which has two meanings – it is used to describe a down and out homeless person or alternatively a particular type of alcoholic – one who is found wandering the streets drinking anything (including methylated spirits) to put him/her in severe state of inebriation. Oh and they’re often of course also a down and out and/or homeless.
While jakey-rock might sound unappealing, it is most certainly not the case. The band consists of keyboardist Mikey Grant, bassist Kieron Campbell and vocalist Tom Murray.
Without being at all disparaging to the others, it is Tom Murray who holds most attention. He doesn’t sing or rant like a scary drunk. He has a really sweet almost angelic voice. His lyrics are just astonishing. I don’t mean it as an insult to say that he is more a poet than a songwriter – each songs unfolds like a short story. Visually, he looks like a cross between a son of Scottish artist and playwright John Byrne and a cousin of Scotland’s other great bearded bard – Aiden Moffat.
A few years later I lost my young brother and then my best mate within a short period of time. My other great cyber-mate, ctel, stepped in and took over the blog on both occasions and there were some amazing guest posts which really meant so much to me at a time of sorrow. Sadly, most of those posts have been lost forever thanks to the bastards at google. Comrade Colin’s contribution was Reverse The Hearse by Dumb Instrument. He knew it would make me smile….
I’ve previously featured Reverse The Hearse so today I’ll go for a song from the debut LP that made it onto Radio 1:-
Today’s charged particles come from the same act, from the same album. It’s everyone’s favorite wordy old uncle, Elvis Costello, serving up a pair of tracks from his 1980 ‘Motown’ LP with the inimitable Attractions, Get Happy!!
Temptation: From EC’s liner notes to the 1989 Rykodisc reissue:“Another drunken composition (or is it decomposition). On the run from a cleverly isolated Dutch studio, we sought excitement in a small cafe. Sure enough I started to fall ‘in love’ with the waitress, but was hustled back to work before the trouble began. I began my protestations of desire in the taxi, and although other grim thoughts came to mind, the song was ‘complete’ by the time we reached the studio. Naturally we recorded it right away and in a childishly literal gesture I insisted on playing organ (very badly).”
Possession: More liner notes: “This started out as a holier-than-thou snipe at a VERY FAMOUS ROCK STAR, who I imagined to be breathing his own artificial atmosphere. However by the time we came to record it I’d had a good lungful of the same poison, but had also located that slippery addictive feeling that you get just before giving in to something wicked. It proved to be the saving of the song, together with a few pints of beer and a riff borrowed from Booker T and the The MGs.”
JTFL
JC adds…
Given this is going to be a regular series, I asked Jonny for some thoughts and ideas for an image or photo to illustrate his posts (they’re not all going to be single artists like today’s effort).
We settled on the above for now; it is the handiwork of Sam, the Friendly Artist. Some of his other creations may feature in due course.
This is an ICA with a difference…and it will likely also come as a surprise to the individual who inspired it.
A few weeks ago, Brian from Linear Track Lives put up a series of great postings featuring Everything But The Girl as he had reached them in his alphabetical runthrough of singers and bands from his extensive vinyl collection. It wasn’t the first time he’d featured the band or indeed Tracey Thorn or Ben Watt as solo artists, and it’s quite clear from the passionate and intelligent way he writes about them that he’s a real fan.
So I thought I would go into Brian’s archives, without him knowing, and, with just a small touch of judicious editing, use some of his best stuff from over the years to create an ICA. I think it works…..
SIDE A
1. Everything But The Girl – Night and Day
It’s an old story. Girl meets boy at university. That’s about as far as you can take the “old story” label. While in Hull, during the first calendar year away from home, Tracey Thorn puts out albums with Marine Girls, Everything But the Girl and as a solo artist. There is a Peel Session and a single of the week in NME with Marine Girls. Don’t forget the cover of Melody Maker and interview after interview with all of the music mags. Then there is checking the same publications to see how all of your various entities are being reviewed and moving on the indie chart, even having two slots in the top 10 at the same time! Meanwhile, your partner in Everything But the Girl and in life, Ben Watt, is releasing an album with Robert Wyatt and having his own run with the music magazines. Oh, and there is that whole trying to earn a degree thing.
Sounds a lot like your first year of college, right?
Elvis Costello and Martin Fry reviewed this first single by Everything But the Girl for Radio 1’s “Roundtable” program. They, of course, loved it. Thorn remembers in her book ‘Bedsit Disco Queen’ that the two “threatened to steal the show’s copy afterwards.”
The shadowy cover of the single said it all, really. Guitar and voice that would work perfectly in a smoky downstairs jazz bar. The A-side is Cole Porter‘s classic. Even U2 couldn’t ruin this song (although they gave it a good run!).
2. Ben Watt – Some Things Don’t Matter
The stripped-down sophisti-pop found on Everything But the Girl’s first single was already in the shops by the time Watt’s solo album joined it on the shelves, but the same laid-back jazz-guitar that made “Night and Day” a hit also filled the slightly less appreciated ‘North Marine Drive.’ This song has been quite a fine companion on many a sleepless night.
3. Tracey Thorn – Plain Sailing
Thorn’s ‘A Distant Shore’ (1982) was reportedly recorded for a mere £138. It’s a quick listen… eight songs clocking in at 23 minutes. For me, it’s a mood piece best listened to in its entirety. In fact, I don’t ever remember spinning it for just one song. Thorn plays guitar and sings. That’s it. There is no other instrument or artist. You’ll find no studio wizardry. In a word, it’s beautiful. I love the album cover, too. It was drawn by Jane Fox of Marine Girls. I have spent quite a few hours admiring the art while listening to the record. Thorn wouldn’t record another album as a solo artist until 2007.
4. Everything But The Girl – Each And Every One
5. Everything But The Girl – Native Land
6. Everything But The Girl – Laugh You Out The House
7. Everything But The Girl – Riverbed Dry
Two singles from 1984 by Everything But the Girl and the first one is my absolute favorite from the band. Both of these singles appeared on what is my favorite album by them, the U.S. release simply known as ‘Everything But the Girl.’ Unless you were a lucky and deep digger in the import bin, debut album ‘Eden’ was nowhere to be found in these parts. What we got instead were six of the 12 songs from the UK release, plus two additional UK singles and four B-sides.
For much of my teenage years, I didn’t even know ‘Eden’ existed. By the time I did pick up a copy of the import, ‘Everything But the Girl’ was so much a part of me that I thought ‘Eden’ seemed inferior in every way. When does that ever happen? In my experience, the UK version of an album is almost always better, but the addition of five of the six songs from these UK singles below really beefed up the U.S. release. I even liked the album cover of the U.S. version better. That’s probably sacrilege to some fans since artist Jane Fox created the cover for ‘Eden.’
SIDE B
1. Everything But The Girl – Angel
From the 1985 album ‘Love Not Money,’ this is the second of two singles from that album. Incidentally, the first was “When All’s Well,” a perfect piece of horn-driven pop that raced up the chart to… No. 77. Ridiculous.
Neither single made any noise on the big countdown, but I do think “When All’s Well” and “Angel” were fine choices for radio. They weren’t, however, the best songs on the album, and the LP managed to sell more than 100,000 copies without a hit on it.
2. Everything But The Girl – Easy As Sin (version)
There were three songs on the B-side of the 12″ of “Angel,” and none of them came from ‘Love Not Money.’ Much appreciated. There was an alternative version of “Easy as Sin,” a song that first appeared on the 1984 U.S. self-titled release. This take was much longer than the original, and Ben took the vocals this time around.
3. Everything But The Girl – Come On Home (extended)
4. Everything But The Girl – Draining The Bar
Although I didn’t keep up with the duo during the ’90s, I think I have just about all there is to have by them in the ’80s. I fell in love with Thorn’s voice when she sang “The Paris Match” for The Style Council in ’84. For much of the rest of the decade, I searched high and low for everything I could get my hands on that featured those pipes.
A four-track 12″ from 1986. “Come on Home,” as well as much of the music on ‘Baby, the Stars Shine Bright,’ was Everything But the Girl going for it. In Thorn’s memoir, she explains the music that was influencing EBTG at the time:
“Our watchwords at the time were Spector, The Shngri-La’s and the album Dusty in Memphis. Peter Walsh from The Apartments moved into our flat for a while, and introduced us to Charlie Rich records.”
Ben Watt worked tirelessly on string arrangements, and a full orchestra and choir was brought into Abbey Road with Mike Hedges producing. Thorn called it “a grand gesture of a record.” When Geoff Travis (their A&R man at the time) visited the studio and heard a finished mix of one of the songs for the first time, he said, “Well, it’s very good, but is there possibly a little too much going on in there?” Just what you want to hear after all of that labor, I’m sure.
The extended version of “Come on Home” is a minute longer than the album version and has a lovely prelude. “Draining the Bar,” written by Thorn, had to have been influenced by those Rich records. Hearing pedal steel was quite a shock in ’86, but I love the song, especially lyrically.
5. Tracey Thorn – Oh The Divorces!
Posted on Linear Track Lives at the halfway point of 2010. It was the perfect excuse to make a list, and you know how I like assembling these things. Here are the caveats: I won’t include a band more than one time (so that She & Him don’t take up 10 spots), and preview songs are acceptable even if the album won’t be out until later this year. It’s always fun to compare this list with the one done at the end of the year. Last year’s lists turned out to be quite different. For now, Tracey Thorn is at #19.
6. Everything But The Girl – I Don’t Want To Talk About It (instrumental)
In 1988, Everything But the Girl released ‘Idlewild,’ the band’s fourth long player. To coincide with the album, the duo released the cover “I Don’t Want to Talk About It.” Oddly, the single didn’t appear on the album, at least initially, but this was how I was introduced to ‘Idlewild,’ as the 12″ contained two songs from the album. The single performed its duties admirably. Based on the strength of “Oxford Street” and “Shadow on a Harvest Moon,” I bought ‘Idlewild’ immediately.
The Danny Whitten-penned tune was made somewhat famous in the mid-’70s (and again with a rerecorded version in 1989) by Rod Stewart. As a youngster, Tracey Thorn and her family were fans of Stewart’s, and I’m sure it was a warm and nostalgic moment for her when EBTG recorded it. Thanks to that last sentence, now you will get a result when searching for Rod Stewart’s name on my blog. I digress. The song was a smash and EBTG’s first UK top 10 single, peaking at No. 3.
I discovered just today that many editions of ‘Idlewild’ released after this single included “I Don’t Want to Talk About It,” even going so far as to make it the album opener. As a 25-year listener of ‘Idlewild’ and an owner of this cherished single, I cry “foul!” The lovely piano of “Love Is Here Where I Live” will always be the way ‘Idlewild’ should open. Period.
This is a version of “I Don’t Want to Talk About It” from my crackly 12″. I know what you’re thinking: “What’s the use of this song without Thorn’s engaging vocals? Just give it a listen. Ben Watt co-wrote a beautiful string arrangement for the instrumental mix, and it’s a very different experience than the single. Simply beautiful.
7. Everything But The Girl – Almost Blue
Finally, here’s a little bonus. Enjoy Tracey Thorn’s beautiful voice on a cover from Everything But the Girl. I have this one on the compilation ’82-92 Essence and Rare.’
Yesterday was Malcolm McLaren and two days ago was Cabaret Voltaire with me admitting that my 16-year old self struggled to enjoy Nag Nag Nag, a situation that hasn’t changed in 2017.
Back in 1979 I also struggled to understand and appreciate much of the output of Public Image Ltd, albeit I adored debut single Public Image. The follow-up Death Disco freaked me out and went way over my head as indeed did the next single Memories.
The difference, however, is that today I can listen to early PIL and really enjoy what I’m hearing with probably no better example than said third single:-
mp3 : Public Image Ltd – Memories (12″ mix)
I think it was being exposed to the emerging Associates and listening out more for bands who sounded similar to Joy Division that made me come to fully appreciate PIL. I had actually forgotten that the single version of Memories, was a totally different mix from that which appeared on Metal Box. It’s about a minute or so shorter in length as well. I feel it’s the superior version as Jah Wobble‘s bass playing is much more to the fore and John Lydon‘s vocal feels more focussed and angry as he rants about how nostalgia for the old days of punk is a waste of time and energy.
mp3 : Public Image Ltd – Memories (album mix)
Here’s the b-side of the single:-
mp3 : Public Image Ltd – Another
Those of you familiar with Metal Box will have spotted that this is a version of an instrumental track from that LP – Graveyard – but with vocals and a bit more bass action.
The inspiration was not from Nag Nag Nag but the fact that listening to Sensoria reminded me of The Art of Noise which bizarrely made me think of this Top 10 hit from 1982:-
mp3 : Malcolm McLaren and The World’s Famous Supreme Team – Buffalo Gals
Here’s the story as told elsewhere on t’internet:-
“Buffalo Gals” is a traditional song that dates back to the 1800s, where it was often played at minstrel shows. The “Buffalo” refers to the city of Buffalo, New York, but the lyrics were altered to fit the place where the song was performed. McLaren changed the refrain from “Buffalo gals, won’t you come out tonight” to “Buffalo gals, around the outside.”
McLaren was the manager of The Sex Pistols and Bow Wow Wow, leading them to the forefront of the British Punk scene. Ever the opportunist, when McLaren heard rap music emerging from the US, he capitalized on the opportunity and released this song, which featured McLaren calling lyrics in a Square Dance style.
This was credited to “Malcolm McLaren And The World’s Famous Supreme Team.” In the 1984 BBC documentary Beat This! – A Hip Hop History, McLaren explains that he was in New York looking for a support act for Bow Wow Wow when he went to an outdoor concert (known as a “Block Party”) by Afrika Bambaataa and Zulu Nation. This is where he was exposed to Hip-Hop for the first time and discovered the scratching technique he would use on this song.
In the liner notes for the LP Duck Rock, McLaren wrote that this track was “recorded with the World’s Famous Supreme Team and Zulu singers backing them up with the words “she’s looking like a hobo.” The performance by the Supreme Team may require some explaining but suffice to say they are DJs from New York City who have developed a technique using record players like instruments, replacing the power chord of the guitar by the needle of a gramophone, moving it manually backwards and forwards across the surface of a record. We call it scratching.”#
This song was groundbreaking because it helped introduce the UK to Hip-Hop culture. Not only did it sound like Hip-Hop (but with a white, British MC), but the video showed breakdancing (courtesy of the Rock Steady Crew) as well as rapping, scratching and graffiti.
It was really the input of Trevor Horn and Anne Dudley that made this bit of music work. The following year they formed The Art of Noise and when I first heard that group’s music I was immediately reminded of what had been done in tandem with Malcolm McLaren. OK, it has dated somewhat and sounds way more gimmicky than it did back in the day, but there was no denying that it was different and that it did act as a gentle introduction to hip-hop for millions of folk living a long way away from its spiritual home.
The b-side of the 7″might well have influenced Kevin Rowland a little bit:-
I could say that back in June 1979 I found this single, issued by Rough Trade Records, to be hugely inspirational and essential listening:-
mp3 : Cabaret Voltaire – Nag Nag Nag
I could say that but I would be lying.
It was a period where I was beginning to get exposed to more electronic music and in due course, if perhaps a little slowly, would fall for its charms. But I never took to what many claimed at the time was one of the breakthrough examples of the genre. It was just too weird, unconventional and difficult for my tastes, and although years later I can now hear it as not being too dissimilar in approach from any punk/new wave songs of the era, it remains a piece of music that grates on me rather than me being able to declare it as great.
It would be another five years before I heard a Cabaret Voltaire song that I could really enjoy and appreciate:-
mp3 : Cabaret Voltaire – Sensoria
Much more accessible thank you very much. One for flailing around the disco floor with your raincoat flapping behind you like Batman’s cape as he chases the bad guys.
In last week’s look at Senses Working Overtime, I made the suggestion that its parent double-album English Settlement had a little bit of filler, a line that led Echorich to, rightly, ask me to justify such a view.
What I would like to say at the outset is English Settlement is a wonderfully and occasionally eccentric record packed with great, idiosyncratic and beautifully crafted songs. All these years on, I reckon it’s the best of the first five albums released by XTC in terms of how it has really stood the test of time since its release back in 1982. Of its fifteen tracks, there are maybe four that I haven’t ever quite taken to – All Of A Sudden (It’s Too Late), Fly On The Wall, Down In The Cockpit and Snowman – but at the same time they’re not the sort of tracks that I ever skip on the few occasions I listen to the album these days (and it is one I have on vinyl and CD).
The reason that I suggest its the best of the first five albums and not the best ever XTC album is simply down to me not being in a position to express any opinion as, sad to say, I don’t actually own copies of any LPs they released after this…but that’s something I’ll come back to in a future point in this series.
The success of Senses Working Overtime removed any pressure to have a hit single which is probably just as well as not all that many of the rest of the songs on the album were really the poppy sing-a-long sort you’d expect to hear much on daytime radio stations; one of the exceptions was this catchy sounding ditty which castigated urban development:-
mp3 : XTC – Ball and Chain
Turned out to be the first real flop single attributed to Colin Moulding, only reaching #58 in March 1982. Unusually, the single version was no different from that on the album. It was released on 7″ and 12″ formats and these were your b-sides:-
mp3 : XTC – Punch and Judy
mp3 : XTC – Heaven Is Paved With Broken Glass
mp3 : XTC – Cockpit Dance Mixture
Neither of Punch and Judy and Heaven Is Paved With Broken Glass would have sounded out-of-place on the parent album but I’m guessing the thinking was that some new songs had to be kept back for b-sides….in this case very superior and enjoyable b-sides.
Cockpit Dance Mixture was the extra track on the 12″ and is an experimental take on the album track Down In The Cockpit. One for the curious and completists.
There’s a short postscript required today…..
It turned out that the folk at Virgin Records, having heard early versions of the new material had been really keen to have Ball and Chain, together with Punch and Judy, released as an advance double-A sided single but felt the band should work with uber-producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley for the optimum results. The group and producers entered into the studio in March 1981 but within a few minutes sparks began to fly and Langer walked out on the recording leaving Winstanley behind to try to salvage something.
The results were deemed more than acceptable but by the time they went into the studio with Hugh Padgham to record the other songs for English Settlement it was decided it wouldn’t make sense to have a one-off single with different producers standing out like a sore thumbs and so both tracks were re-recorded.
The Langer/Winstanley versions eventually saw the light of day on a 4xCD compilation box set released in 2002 that pulled together demos, rarities and live tracks amlongside some band favorites.
mp3 : XTC – Ball and Chain (Langer/Winstanley version)
mp3 : XTC – Punch and Judy (Langer/Winstanley version)
Andy and Colin both feel these versions are superior to those which were released back in the day. It’s fair comment as they are punchier and more radio-friendly.
Once again this is a band whose inclusion in the series rests with the fact a song was included on a compilation CD, in this instance one given away with a sunday newspaper back in 2007. I’ve had to dig deep to find info and this is adapted from a piece in a newspaper that covers their hometown:-
INDIE rockers The Draymin have vowed to go out with a bang after announcing their headline performance at Weekend Revolution will be their final show.
The Rosyth five-piece of Fraser Penman, Craig Penman, Gec Livingstone, Gary Louch and Cal Nicol will bow out after 10 years together at the one-day music extravaganza in Dunfermline on 3rd October 2015.
Their gig at Lourenzos will bring to an end a memorable decade that has taken them to T in the Park, RockNess and the South by Southwest festival in Texas, as well as attracting interest from recording giants EMI.
Although a record deal eluded them, The Draymin won an army of fans but any hope that they could reunite – as they did in 2009 after a year apart – was put to bed by guitarist Craig, who told Press:ON, “We’ve had enough reunions now I think – how many do you do? This is our last one ever as The Draymin, although we’ll probably find that we’ll still go for a jam together or some of the guys might go on and do their own thing. It’s difficult to get all five of us together for practice; times change with kids and work. We gave it a good bash and we’re happy to go out on a high.
The band have come a long way from their first gig at Rosyth Dockyard Club in 2005 and Craig, who revealed the band have produced a final single called ‘Dangerous Door’, reflected, “We put the video together for the new tune and it’s a montage of photos of gigs we’ve played and places we’ve visited, and there’s been a lot of good times and laughs. A lot of the stories you couldn’t print though!
“Getting to play T in the Park twice was something else, and going to RockNess and South by Southwest were great experiences. We went to the EMI recording studios for a week which was great, even though we weren’t quite what they were looking for in the end. We took it all in our stride and kept our feet on the ground; they were great times and it didn’t matter if we were signed or not.
“It’s easy to look back and think ‘what if’, but there’s no point because it’s outwith your control. We could easily have been signed but quickly dropped, so you can never tell. We just enjoyed making and performing music and although you can’t rule anything out, we can’t go on forever – unless you’re the Rolling Stones!
I’m thinking that there will be thousands of examples of The Draymin the world over. Huge in their home town and immediate surroundings but never quite having that something to take them to a wider audience. Fair play to the boys for keeping it going for so long.
I don’t have a music blog of my own but I gather I have something in common with JC and the regular contributors that do: Like you lot I was always the guy people asked to make mix tapes (and, later, playlists) for parties, trips, birthdays, etc.
One of the categories that people liked very much was called Charged Particles. These consisted of songs with one word titles ending with ION. That was the only thing they had in common. Turns out there are tons of them; I’ve got nearly 200 in my iTunes library and they always seem to combine interestingly. I mentioned doing something with the list when I met JC in Manchester and he said, ‘Ask me, I won’t say no, how could I?’
My thinking was that he could plug in a charged particle post when he was away or busy or couldn’t be bothered that day to put up a new one. The posts would be short and sweet and let the music do the talking. JC liked the idea okay and correctly guessed the songs I had in mine for the first one.
And here it is. Remember the only guideline is a single word ending in ion. Can it end in ‘ionS’? No, so no ‘Complications’ by Killing Joke. Does it count if you cram a bunch of words together like ‘StationtoStation’? Nope. How about if the word is preceded or followed by a phrase in parentheses? No, not that either. (Unless I feel like it.) Hyphens? Sure, why not.
Right, here we go: Today’s charged particles are by Manchester’s best or second best band, depending on your preference, in honor of the town where I got to meet the Vinyl Villain, at last:
Joy Division: Transmission
Joy Division: Auto-suggestion
Joy Division: Isolation
Joy Division: Incubation
It was genuinely pleasing to get such a positive response to the idea of using the 1st day of each month (or as close to the 1st if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday) to throw out the songs that were #1 in the UK Indie Charts 30, 20 and 10 years ago to the day. I genuinely have no idea what is going to come up until the day I start putting the piece together. Fingers crossed….
1 June 1987 : Nosedive Karma : Gaye Bikers On Acid (3rd of 3 weeks)
1 June 1997 : I’ll Be There For You – The Rembrandts (2nd of 4 weeks)
1 June 2007 : I’m Not Sorry – The Pigeon Detectives ( 1 week)
Oh dear. The middle one alone is making me have second thoughts about this series….
But back first of all to 1987.
Gaye Bikers On Acid. One of the greatest band names of all time. Just a pity that I cannot for the life of me recall any of their songs.
Wiki tell us they were an English psychedelic rock band from Leicester, and one of the founder members of the Grebo music scene. They later released both thrash punk and dance music albums under various aliases and consisted of:-
Mary Byker (Ian Garfield Hoxley) – vocals Tony Byker/Phlegm Lubricant/Tony Shuttleburger/Sven Eleven- (Tony Horsfall) – guitar Robber Byker (Ian Reynolds) – bass guitar Rocket Ronnie (William Samuel Ronald Morrow) – turntablist Kev Byker/Cubehead Buffalo Hyde/Gavina Hyde/Kenny Pride – (Kevin Hyde) – drums
Their first two releases – the single Everythang’s Groovy and the Nosedive Karma EP – were both recorded with the help of Jon Langford of The Mekons, and released on the InTape label which was run by Marc Riley (then merely an ex-member of The Fall and not yet one half of a terrific radio duo).
The success of these releases led to them signing to Virgin Records and releasing the albums Drill Your Own Hole in 1987 and Stewed to the Gills in 1989. Initial quantities of the vinyl version of Drill Your Own Hole was pressed without a hole in the centre, so it was necessary to literally drill your own hole to play it.
They also played gigs (dressed in women’s clothing) under the name ‘Lesbian Dopeheads on Mopeds’, supporting themselves, and thus getting paid twice. They also performed as a fictitious East German thrash punk band “Rektüm” (they claimed to have jumped over the Berlin Wall), recording an LP Sakredanus and an EP Real Horror Show under the name.
However management problems and poor sales meant that they were dropped by Virgin in 1989. They subsequently released the album Cancer Planet Mission on their own record label, Naked Brain. They also recycled and used the band name ‘The Purple Fluid Exchange’ (PFX) to release their dance cross-over material. It was at this time that Rocket Ronnie joined the band as DJ, sample player and dance advisor.
In 1990 they released Pernicious Nonsense, their last studio album, again recorded with Jon Langford . Poorly attended tours in the US and UK caused friction and the final blow came when Rough Trade, who distributed their Naked Brain recordings, went bankrupt owing them and many other bands considerable amounts of cash.
A band who, understandably, generated a loyal following who revelled in the fact they were far from predictable and by all accounts a bonkers and ocasionally brilliant live act.
mp3 : Gaye Bykers On Acid – Nosedive Karma
Fast forward ten years.
As with R Kelly last month, this single exploited a loophole to qualify for the indie charts. The Rembrandts were part of Atlantic Records but the music came out on the East West imprint. This song was a massive hit thanks to it being the theme tune for the show Friends.
Fun fact. Barely believable but true. I’ve never seen a complete episode of Friends. I hated the idea of it back in the days just reading its premise and vowed to avoid at all costs. I’ve managed to do so more than 20 years on after it began airing. In keeping with the spirit of this belligerent attitude, the theme song ain’t getting on this blog.
And so to 2007.
The Pigeon Detectives are a band whose name vaguely rings a bell but again, I’ve no idea what any of their songs sound like.
Wiki informs that they came together in 2004 in Leeds and three years later issued their first singles and albums. They are still going strong today, racking up five albums in total, including two that went Top 5 in the UK. They were everywhere back in 2007, doing that thing where the music was initially released online to fans before becoming commercially available, thus building up a buzz of anticipation. They are on the label Dance To The Radio of whom I do own some releases by the likes of iLiKETRAiNS, and ¡Forward, Russia!.
It also says that over the years they have played on the largest stages at music festivals and headlined all sorts of tours, even selling out the 8,000 capacity Alexandra Palace in London. But nope, I still can’t say for certain if I know any of their tunes:-
mp3 : The Pigeon Detectives – I’m Not Sorry
Having listened….I have to ask myself why they made it big when a contemporary band like The Rakes flopped.
Catchy pop with an indie bent to it. I can see why they appealed so much to folk of a certain age (and their target market) back in the day.
More such nonsense on Friday 30 June (as 1 July falls on a Saturday)
Everything But The Girl enjoyed a #13 hit in 1992 with the Covers EP, four songs that, unsurprisingly, were their takes on some classic songs originally released by Mickey & Sylvia, Bruce Springsteen, Cyndi Lauper and Elvis Costello.
mp3 : Everything But The Girl – Love Is Strange
mp3 : Everything But The Girl – Tougher Than The Rest
mp3 : Everything But The Girl – Time After Time
mp3 : Everything But The Girl – Alison
I thought I’d do something similar today to commemorate the current Singles on Sunday series:-
mp3 : Joe Jackson – Statue of Liberty
mp3 : Charlotte Hatherley – This Is Pop?
mp3 : Nouvelle Vague – Making Plans For Nigel
mp3 : Erich Sellheim – Sgt Rock (der wird mir helfen)
And finally a filthy little mash up in which XTC meet Tweet (feat Missy Ellliot)
mp3 : Go Home Productions – Making Plans For Vinyl
My goodness, is that the time? Can’t believe tomorrow sees us reach June.
Edinburgh duo Hugh Duggie and Ian White are ex Factory Records and ex Mute artists, and between them they were in the Wendys, Foil, and Lowlife. It is all about the electronica, and the guitars, and the songs. Think Beck, Wolfgang Press, for starters, maybe the Beta Band and even Lemon Jelly. All songs are written, performed, and produced by Ian and Hugh, for their own Brawsome Productions
Here’s Jacques…..
DESCENT INTO GLADNESS
What do you expect when a member of best-known-in-the-90s indie band, The Wendys (by the way, they’re back – go see), teams up with a former member of late-90s noiseniks, Foil, to make music? Probably not an album that contains more hooks than Vinnie Jones’s rucksack on a wild fishing weekend. But that is indeed what has happened on Lazy Glamour, the first album by Sons of the Descent, a self-produced masterpiece of electronica and guitars. An album that only exists due to a chance re-meeting.
What follows is a whistle-stop tour. Beware though, because while there is undoubtedly lazy glamour, what follows will also include lazy comparisons. Designed only, in my defence, to allow you the potential listener who may have limited knowledge of their oeuvre to be persuaded of its merits. Originally, and obviously, I’d intended this be on the streets to coincide with the official release of the album. The fact that it’s blatantly not says much about the demands of my work in recent times. But. But. But. That extra time means the following is a considered opinion. The result of many listens. The confirmation of an enduringly good album.
In this modern world of downloads, I’m not sure if “double A-sides” still exist, but up first on the album is one of two taster tracks released earlier in the year as a download single. At the time it garnered attention from Radios 6 and Scotland and, to my ears, remains as good as when I first heard it. If you enjoy a bit of Mark E Smith style vocalising over the first of those hooks I talked about, then I reckon you’ll like Hugh imploring you to “Look At The Sky”. Notable also for the first use of “Englandshire” in a song – that I’m aware of anyway. Also the source of the album title.
Second up is the song that was available to all us anoraks through at least one well-known streaming site last year. “You Don’t Have To Know My Name” impressed me then and it has lost none of its sparkle since. Downbeat but not down beats.
“Dolphin And Elm”, as some may guess from the title, deals with paedophilia. Two separate addresses where a number of well-known individuals not so allegedly gathered for regular sexual abuse of minors. It makes me uncomfortable to suggest that such serious subject matter should make for one of the best tracks on the album, but not as uncomfortable as I feel every time I hear the sexual undertones of Hugh whispering “Can you see what it is yet” near the end. Truly disturbing.
Next up comes what used to be described as the current single. It’s worth tracking down the promo for “Situation In Your Head” as it’s so simple yet so right for this particular song. Two men with phones in a living room. Sort of. No prizes for guessing that this is a song about paranoia.
Beware – there’s another lazy reference coming. “Reports From The Colonies” is a song that immediately makes me think Divine Comedy. From the title to the singing, particularly that damn annoyingly catchy chorus. This for me is a good thing.
“Golden Misfits” on the other hand reminds me of the Stone Roses. Again, not a bad thing. Just a beauteous bundle of early 90s spaced out sexiness.
“Flighty” was the other half of that double A-side I talked of earlier. For me, it remains the better track of the two. Pop electronica twiddling with what used to be described as a soaring chorus.
“Charisma Sans Charlie” is aptly titled when you hear the bonus track on the Bandcamp version of the album. That version is avec Charlie, albeit confusingly it is singularly titled “Charisma”. I’ll leave you to guess who the sampled Charlie actually is. Honesty being the best policy, I’ll admit that I prefer the original(??) sampled version. On both, a strum and keening guitar combines with a spoken vocal. And then there’s that chorus. Hands aloft.
I saw someone compare “Harm Is No Answer” to Captain Beefheart. Being a poppy kinda guy, I’d say it’s better than that! More early 80s Cherry Red experimentalism for me. A song for which the adjective ‘scratchy’ is made.
“My Mind Will Shine” is my favourite song on the album. In some ways the most conventional song, in others not at all. There’s so much happening over the course of this. Repetitive beats yes but repeated listens, even more so. Be good to us and we’ll be good to you, indeed.
So, let me tell ya ‘ bout “Deep Sea Buffalo (Theme From “This Is The Winter”)”, which ends the physical version of the album. A splendid bit of wigging out that in days of yore would have attracted an Oakenfold remix. A real legal high to end on.
And that’s it. One of my favourite albums of this year. I can confirm that already. Oh, and all the way through the review without one use of the word ‘braw’.
mp3 : Sons Of The Descent – You Don’t Have To Know My Name
Adapted from a combination of wiki and all music:-
The Jags were a one-hit wonder of the late-70s UK power pop explosion. The quartet was formed in 1978 by the Yorkshire-based songwriting team of Nick Watkins (vocals) and John “Twink” Adler (guitar), with Steve Prudence (bass) and Alex Baird (drums). In July of 1978, they signed to Island Records and released a promising four-track EP.
Just over a year later, in September 1979, the single Back of My Hand hit the charts where it would hang around for ten weeks and reach #17.
Their debut LP Evening Standards was released the following year; it included the big hit along with its follow-up Woman’s World which spent a solitary week at #75 which I suppose means that, technically speaking, The Jags weren’t a one-hit wonder. The album featured a really solid set of punchy power pop songs, but critics focussed instead on Watkins’ Costello-like delivery, writing the band off as merely mimics. As steam ran out of the power pop craze, the band attempted to change their sound a bit. 1981’s No Tie Like the Present featured a slightly new direction, but it was generally overlooked. By 1982, the Jags had disbanded for good.
And here, picked up some years ago from a charity shop for pennies, in the good old days before vinyl came back into fashion, are both sides of the hit:-
mp3 : The Jags – Back Of My Hand
mp3 : The Jags – Double Vision
It says on the label of this 45 that there was additional production from The Buggles; as such it must be one of the earliest songs worked on by Trevor Horn.
Oh, also to say that having my young brother and his family around these past few days while they are on holiday in the UK from Florida has meant I’ve not been on t’internet for the past 5 days. I’ll try and catch up today…and that includes any emails that haven’t as yet been read far less replied to.
I won’t dwell too much on today’s single as I’ve featured it before as part of my 45 45s at 45 series.
Senses Working Overtime was released in January 1982. It remains XTC‘s biggest hit, reaching #10 in the singles charts as well as helping parent double album, English Settlement, hit #5, again the highest chart position of any of their LPs.
It was released on 7″ and 12″ vinyl. The 7″ had a slightly shorter version (by about 15 seconds or so) of the lead song along with two tracks on the b-side. The 12″ had the longer album version of the song plus one extra track on the b-side. It’s a long way from the sound of Science Friction but for me, it is one of the finest pop songs ever committed to vinyl by anyone. An absolute masterpiece.
mp3 : XTC – Senses Working Overtime (edited version)
mp3 : XTC – Egyptian Solution
mp3 : XTC – Blame The Weather
mp3 : XTC – Tissue Tigers (The Arguers)
Egyptian Solution is an instrumental and was the third in the Homo Safari series (see earlier postings).
Blame The Weather is a very fine, if slightly melancholy number dependant more on piano than guitar, written by Colin Moulding that reminds me of later-period Madness.
I’m a fan of Tissue Tigers and feel it could easily have been included on English Settlement in place of one or two of what I feel are a bit filler, as you would expect when a band releases its first ever double LP
The b-side cuts today are taken from the original vinyl singles and are a bit scratchy and hissy in places. I could have gone for cleaner copies via other sources but I thought what the hell…..it’s about keeping with the spirit of the blog.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 