Blink

STOP PRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi y’all

I had an amazing few days over the weekend

I saw Butcher Boy get together for the first time in almost four years and deliver a memorable set in a unique venue as part of Record Store Day.

I traveled to Manchester and met up with Jonny the Friendly Lawyer for the first ever time and then watched his band The Ponderosa Aces play a stormer of set in which a song was dedicated to me.

And I will, at some point, expand on both of these unforgettable events along with how I squeezed in in another Record Store Day gig on the Saturday evening.

But I think it’s fair to say, and I know from the conversation we had on Sunday night that Jonny will agree with me, all of this pales into insignificance with the news that SWC and Tim Badger have announced plans for the return of When You Can’t Remember Anything.

It’s going to be the morning of Thursday 27 April. And in due course, all your usual favourites will be making an appearance.

It’s been a very good few days indeed.

mp3 : Blink – Happy Day

JC

Mission of Burma

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #118 : MISSION OF BURMA

A GUEST POSTING FROM JONDER

(long time reader, first time contributor)

Mike Melville‘s survey of Wire’s 21st century albums inspired me to compile songs from Mission Of Burma‘s reincarnation.

Mission Of Burma released two singles, an EP, and one LP before guitarist Roger Miller‘s tinnitus forced him to retire from live performance in 1983. Miller formed the neo-classical Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic.

Pete Prescott stepped out from behind the drum kit to lead the band Kustomized, followed by The Volcano Suns.

Burma’s bassist Clint Conley left the music industry completely.

The 2001 book Our Band Could Be Your Life put Mission Of Burma in context as the equal of contemporaries like Black Flag, the Minutemen and Husker Du; and as a formative influence on Big Black, Fugazi, and Sonic Youth.

In May of 2000, Prescott’s band The Peer Group opened for Wire. Conley filled in on bass, and Miller joined them for one song on keyboard. It had been over 15 years since Burma’s members last shared a stage. Conley started writing songs again, and formed a band called Consonant in 2001. Miller soon donned a guitar and a pair of ear protectors. Mission of Burma played its first reunion show in 2002, and released the first of four new albums in 2004. They last played in 2016, but there have been no new Burma songs since 2012.

1 Fever Moon (from ‘On/Off/On‘)

Roger Miller was born in Detroit and raised on the Stooges and the MC5. He was also a student of modern classical composition. Miller and his music are equally at home with the visceral, the cerebral, and the surreal. I picture the “sentimental Visigoth” of this song as a personification of all three traits.

2 2wice (from ‘The Obliterati’)

Clint Conley is the least confident of Burma’s three songwriters, despite his exceptional melodic sense and the stirring words of ‘Academy Fight Song’ and ‘That’s When I Reach For My Revolver’. In Consonant interviews, Conley expressed dislike for his Burma songs, and he employed Holly Anderson’s poems as Consonant lyrics. Conley is an excellent bassist with a nimble voice, and he displays the range of both instruments on ‘2wice’.

3 The Enthusiast (from ‘On/Off/On’)

Peter Prescott contributes fewer songs to Mission Of Burma than Conley or Miller, but some of them are real gems. This one is reminiscent of his 1982 exhortation, ‘Learn How’. Prescott often adds enthusiastic shouts to punctuate his bandmates’ songs; his voice is the last sound on the closing track of the first Burma LP. Prescott has a new band called Minibeast.

4 Careening With Conviction (from ‘The Obliterati’)

Martin Swope was invited by Miller (a John Cage disciple) to add an element of chance to Mission Of Burma’s sound. Swope recorded tape loops of Burma’s music, manipulated them and fed them back into the mix. Swope never appeared onstage, and he declined to participate in the reunion, so Bob Weston assumed his role. ‘Careening With Conviction’ features three voices: Miller, Conley, and a Miller/Conley splice created by Weston.

5 SSL 83 (from ‘The Sound The Speed The Light’)

Another phantom voice flickers to life in this song, reminiscent of the tricks that the Beatles used: running tapes backwards and altering the speed of sound. Martin Swope was Burma’s “fifth Beatle”.

6 Slow Faucet (from ‘The Sound The Speed The Light’)

Mission Of Burma are perhaps Wire’s closest American counterparts. Both groups left behind the strictures of punk and the conventions of songwriting. Burma and Wire share an intellectual restlessness: suspicious of conformity, deeply averse to repeating themselves, with each member pushing the others to greater creativity. ‘Slow Faucet’ has a layered structure that briefly collapses before restating its defiant theme: “you don’t know me.”

7 Invisible (from the ‘2wice’ single)

Gang Of Four were another of Burma’s British contemporaries. The interpersonal politics of Gill and King‘s lyrics are evident in this track, as is the Gang Of Four’s sonic assault: a massive bassline, slashing guitar and a relentless beat. Hugo Burnham was among the musicians who joined Mission Of Burma onstage during Burma’s first reunion show.

8 Donna Sumeria (from ‘The Obliterati’)

Who but Mission Of Burma could have created this? There’s a brief paraphrase from the disco queen’s immortal ‘I Feel Love’, and perhaps the pun begat the song, but there’s no use playing “spot the influence” here.

9 1,2,3 Partyy! (from ‘The Sound The Speed The Light’)

Another paraphrase, this time from The Syndicate Of Sound‘s ‘Little Girl’. Conley and Miller first played together in The Moving Parts, an avant-garage band (to borrow a hyphenate from Pere Ubu). The Moving Parts covered The Music Machine‘s ‘Talk Talk’, another proto-punk classic.

10 7’s (from ‘Unsound’)

Like ‘SSL 83’, this song might be autobiographical. “All we ask is one more shot,” Conley sings, while acknowledging that the effort is “totally ridiculous”. It’s hard to tease out the meaning of Conley’s lyrics. ‘1,2,3 Partyy!’ seems to be about a man trying to control his drinking, and ‘2wice’ may be told from the perspective of a stalker. These songs speak of mistakes and self-contradictions, themes that date back to ‘Academy Fight Song’.

11 Youth Of America (live at the Cat’s Cradle, 16 April 2004)

Amps to eleven, Burma blazes through a cover of The Wipers’ 1981 anthem, which rebelled against the punk rebellion and its dictates (no long songs! no guitar solos!)

BONUS TRACK: This Is Not A Photograph by Great Ytene (from the ‘George Street‘ single)

Three decades on, Mission Of Burma continues to exert a powerful influence. Here a young British quartet adds its own energy to a classic from 1981’s ‘Signals, Calls, And Marches’.

JON

Sugarplastic

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #117 : THE SUGARPLASTIC

A GUEST POSTING FROM BRIAN
http://lineartrackinglives.blogspot.co.uk/

JC writes….

I do love the fact the ICA series has proven to be so popular.  I am especially pleased that so many of you take the time to submit guest postings that, in many cases allow singers and bands never previously featured on TVV to be the focus of attention.

The idea is normally to have one ICA per week so that enough attention can be devoted to each post – I know that some readers do drop in every day and it’s no hassle to read and hopefully enjoy a long and detailed posting, but many others are occasional visitors and to see screeds of type can be off-putting. leading to a quick scan of things and perhaps missing out on some great posts simply because the band wasn’t known to them or was of little interest. (I say that with some confidence as it is something I can be guilty of myself when time is tight).

The thing is, I’ve had a great run of e-mails with suggested ICAs that to hold them to one per week would mean some folk not seeing their efforts on the screen for a long while yet. I don’t think that’s a good way to treat anyone and so, with your indulgence, the rest of this week is going to be dedicated solely to ICAs….all, of which are fantastically and lovingly written in ways that will educate and entertain in equal measure.

First up is Brian from Linear Track Lives with yet another quality look at a band, I have to be honest, completely passed me by.  It’s also appropriate that he name checks Jonny the Friendly Lawyer as this post will appear a matter of hours after I meet him for the first ever time at his gig in Manchester (an event I will turn into a post as soon as time allows….it’s all a bit manic just now with work and folk also over visiting from Canada….not to mention gearing up for early May when there’s the bloggers get-together in Glasgow).

Anyways….here’s Brian.

When you think of Los Angeles, what’s the music scene that pops into your head? Is it the punk movement of the late ’70s and early ’80s? How about the Paisley Underground? For me, it’s ’90s power pop. Now, power pop has had a rich history in the City of Angels for more that 40 years, from The Nerves and its many offshoots to Tulsa transplants 20/20 and the Dwight Twilley Band, to name but a few, but there were two bands from near the end of the century I liked better than the genre’s giants. I’ll get to the other one next time, but let’s begin with The Sugarplastic.

I have featured this trio on my blog many times, and the reception has generally been tepid, but I’m a stubborn sod. Two recent developments inspired me to be a Sugarplastic disciple once more. On Sundays, JC is taking us through the singles of XTC, a band you’re bound to think of while listening to this ICA. I also discovered quite inadvertently through the comments section of my blog that our friend Johnny the Friendly Lawyer/Johnny Bottoms is a big fan. Finally, after nearly eight years of pushing the Sugarplastic, I have found a comrade. I swear I heard angels singing.

Like so many bands that have received the ICA treatment, I could easily focus on the early years and give you the Sugarplastic’s best work, but I have decided to go for a comprehensive listen.

Side A

“Ottawa Bonesaw”

All those hours practicing at the appliance store owned by the father of drummer Josh Laner paid off. The band’s first release came out on Los Angeles-based Pronto Records in 1993, and it was quite an introduction. The label went all out and created a box set of three 7″ singles at a time when vinyl had all but disappeared. Johnny the Friendly Lawyer commented “the first compilation tape I made for my son… had ‘Ottawa Bonesaw’ on it. Every kid loves that tune.”

“Jesus Doesn’t Live Here Anymore”

The Sugarplastic had three songs on Pronto’s 1993 compilation ‘Meg: An L.A. Sampler.’ This song never showed up anywhere else. The band’s next two singles would be released with little fanfare on Small-Fi and Minty Fresh. The Sugarplastic didn’t stand a chance. The Chicago label was busy pushing the popular Veruca Salt at the time.

“Radio Jejune”

The title track from their 1995 album and first long player, this time on Sugar Fix Recordings. While the fellas were in the studio, Geffen came sniffing around. A deal was struck, but the Sugarplastic agreed on the condition ‘Radio Jejune’ would come out on Sugar Fix before they would begin recording for the major label. Here’s where Ben Eshbach really began to blossom as a writer. His songs had more hooks than an old man’s fishing hat, and folks outside of L.A. began taking notice.

“Arizona”

By ‘Radio Jejune,’ it was obvious XTC (particularly album ‘Drums and Wires’) was a huge influence. As a fan, I didn’t take this as a negative. I always thought it meant clever lyrics and a herky-jerky, tension-filled delivery, but as more listeners were exposed to the Sugarplastic, the derivative label began rearing its ugly head. Instead of running the other way, Ben had fun with it. “Life Begins at the Hop,” anyone? How’s this for a cheeky lyric: “Sit back and watch me crack, what Mr. Moulding’s done before.” I chose “Arizona” because of the XTC connection, but any song on ‘Radio Jejune’ could have shown up on this ICA. It’s an essential album.

“Polly Brown”

Now signed to a major, fortune and fame followed. Uh, maybe not. The Geffen era was one album, ‘Bang, the Earth is Round,’ but what a great album it was! “Polly Brown,” an old song from the “Ottawa Bonesaw” box set, was shined up and released as a single that went nowhere. To give you a little perspective, “Macarena” was the top song of 1996 on Billboard.

Side B

“Sheep”

If I was honest about this ICA, the A-side would be from ‘Radio Jejune.’ The B-side would be filled from ‘Bang, the Earth is Round.’

“Sheep” was a forgotten single from 1993 that found its way onto the Geffen album. It has a lyric I have always loved: “I’ve sired now I’m tired and I want to go to sleep.” The additional vocals from Gretchen Parlato worked really well. Parlato has gone on to have a quite a career as a jazz vocalist.

“Don’t Look Down”

Sugarplastic Central became quiet for four long years. During that time, Laner left the band and was replaced by David Cunningham. In 2000, Craig McCracken, creator of animated series The Powderpuff Girls released ‘Heroes & Villains,’ a compilation of songs inspired by the show. McCracken said these bands inspired his own work, and a quick look at the roster revealed I wanted to be friends with this guy. Devo, Bis, Frank Black, Apples in Stereo, Komeda and many other greats participated. This is the Sugarplastic’s contribution.

“Dunn the Worm”

Another album, another label. ‘Resin’ came out on Escape Artist Recordings in 2000. Andy Metcalfe of Squeeze and the Soft Boys produced. The songs were quirkier than ever, but there were ever-so subtle changes in sound. The comparisons to XTC faded.

“Hey Mr. Lockjaw”

In 2003, after three more years of quiet, Tallboy Records out of San Francisco made a major announcement. The Sugarplastic would release seven 7″ singles, about one every three months, via subscription. I was subscriber No. 63 of 300 available slots, and all of my singles were numbered as such. The sleeves and colored vinyl can only be described as art. One side of each single was penned by principal writer Eshbach. In a rare move, bassist Kiara Geller wrote the songs for the other side. “Hey Mr. Lockjaw” was my favorite of Geller’s contributions.

“The Runaround”

I never heard or read a definitive pronouncement the Sugarplastic had called it a day, but it has been 12 years since their last album. I’m beginning to lose hope. If ‘Will’ really was the end, though, I can accept it, but I still check the Tallboy site from time to time with hopes of some news.

Hidden Track

“Dover”

This is a short song (1:49) from the “Ottawa Bonesaw” box set in 1993. It also appeared on the Japanese import of early works called ‘Primitive Plastic: Demos and B-Sides’ from 2001. Like so many underappreciated bands from the West, the Japanese got the Sugarplastic. Of course they did! Eshbach wrote in the liner notes of ‘Primitive Plastic:’ “Some [of these songs] are unfinished – all of them are a little embarrassing – but Josh, Kiara and I secretly love every one of them. Dover, in fact, is my favorite Sugarplastic recording of all time.”

BRIAN

JC adds….

See that comment I signed off with recently when Nik wrote about YMO?? Same applies this week….only this time I knew nothing of this band…not even their name!

I particularly love Brian’s attention to the smallest of details such as sharing with us he was subscriber #63. His love for, and knowledge of, the most obscure of bands, never ceases to amaze me. Can’t wait to see him again next month.

XTC

THE XTC SINGLES (Part 8)

And so we come to the era that most casual fans of XTC will be most familiar with – the singles that were lifted from the 1980 LP Black Sea. There were four in total in the UK between August 1980 and March 1981. There was also a further single, not on the album, which was released in November 1980 – but all of that will be covered in due course.

General and Majors predated the release of the LP by around five weeks. As we would later discover, there were loads of options for decent 45s but given that Colin Moulding had supplied the only two previous chart hits it was no surprise that Virgin Records went for one of his to lead things off.

mp3 : XTC – Generals and Majors

An anti-military establishment rather than an anti-war song, it is one of those incredibly simple but effective tunes made memorable from a combination of catchy chorus (which Colin has always been quick to say was really a fine-tuning, by Andy Partridge, of a half-finished lyrical idea), fantastically fast and furious guitar work, whistling and humming. It had smash hit written all over it….but stalled at #32 despite a marketing campaign that saw the first 15,000 copies of the record be a double-single with tracks that would be unavailable on the parent LP.

mp3 : XTC – Don’t Lose Your Temper
mp3 : XTC – Smokeless Zone
mp3 : XTC – The Somnambulist

The first is a rockin’ n’ rollin’ two and a half minutes of music that really got up hopes for the forthcoming LP. If something as fine sounding at this hadn’t made the cut then something special had to be coming down the line.

The second was a bit more experimental albeit it kept up the frantic face of the two songs that made up the standard 7″. It was about now that I began to think of XTC not simply as a new wave band but more in keeping with the tradition of greatly talented but occasionally eccentric English bands who made music that you couldn’t ever pigeon-hole.

The third song is the only one on the double-pack not produced by Steve Lillywhite; instead it is attributed to Andy Partridge. It’s a very strange and eerie piece of music that was totally unlike anything else the band had done before – it was almost as experimental as the sounds of the likes of Ultravox, Human League, Tubeway Army or those other weird synth-based groups who were never going to amount to anything.

I had no idea back then what a somnambulist was…I had to look it up. That it was an ode to a trance-like state for sleepwalkers sort of made sense with the tune. Truth be told, I hated it back in 1980 Far too refined for my 17 year old tastes. Nowadays, I think it’s a masterpiece. Oh and I’ve since learned, thanks to researching for this series that it pre-dated much of the Black Sea material as it was recorded as part of spare time left over in a BBC studio while making a Peel Session in March 1980.

Oh, also worth mentioning that the single version of Generals and Majors is about thirty seconds shorter than would appear on the subsequent LP.

JC

Delgados

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #72 : THE DELGADOS

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Quite simply, the most important group to ever have come out of Scotland whose legacy has brought so much joy to so many people over the years.

The Delgados were more than a band. They were, and remain, an institution thanks to the establishment of Chemikal Underground.

Five studio LPs, sixteen singles, one live CD and a Peel Sessions collection is what they left behind on their own account.

Arab Strap (and solo careers for Moffat and Middleton), Mogwai, The Phantom Band, Bis, Aereogramme and RM Hubbert are just a small sample of those singers and groups who owe just about everything to Alun Woodward, Emma Pollock, Paul Savage and Stewart Henderson.

I’ve tried and failed miserably at least four times to come up with an ICA. Maybe I just need to feature them in depth at some point in the future.

mp3 : The Delgados – Accused of Stealing

From The Great Eastern LP, released in 2000. One of THE great Scottish albums of all time.

JC

Joy Division

FORGIVE THE SELF-INDULGENCE TODAY

I found a copy of a posting from 2007 that even today, nearly ten years on, I’m quite proud of. The old blog was less than a year old and having just found my feet and gaining the confidence to post every day, I then found myself in Toronto for a five-month spell that prevented me blogging every day ( mainly a combination of pressure of work and not having access to the thousands of mp3 files I had lovingly created); but the time in Canada brought other great opportunities my way that more than made up for it.  Such as being among the first to see a stunning movie that I reviewed at the time.  From 9 September 2007….

This past week and a bit saw Mrs Villain join me for a short stay in Toronto. It was her first ever visit to the city, and we did loads of touristy things including going along to something that was part at the recently opened Toronto International Film Festival 2007.

We were lucky enough to get two tickets for Control. We had hoped to get to the first showing at 9.45pm on a Friday evening, but the tickets were impossible to obtain. But we had the consolation of getting to the second and final showing, albeit at the ungodly hour of 9am on a Saturday morning.

First surprise was that we were far from alone. The cinema was almost full to capacity with maybe the best part of 1,000 folk inside. Second surprise that it was not an audience entirely made up of music fans – just behind us we heard one exchange along the lines of “Was this guy Curtis some sort of cult figure?”. The third surprise was a brief personal appearance by Anton Corbijn, who expressed his delight that so many people would come along so early in the morning to watch a black and white feature by a first-time film director.

The effort of getting out of bed at such an ungodly hour on a weekend was more than worth it. Control is an exceptional piece of work. I’ve long been a fan of Corbijn’s photographs and videos, so I had a fair idea that it would look good. What I wasn’t prepared for was the level of performances from just about everyone in the film.

The part of Ian Curtis is played by the relatively little-known Sam Riley, and he does an unbelievable job. The more famous Samanatha Morton is outstanding as Deborah Curtis, especially in the second half of the movie as she begins to come to terms with how her husband is treating her.

The other young actors who play the members of the band – James Anthony Pearson (Bernard Sumner), Harry Treadaway (Steven Morris) and Joe Anderson (Peter Hook) are just about perfect, and not just because the roles called on them to play live. Bernard in particular comes across perfectly as the wide-eyed little-boy not quite believing that he’s making it as a musician.

While the overall mood of the film is, as you would expect sombre, the script is packed with some fantastic one-liners, some of which are delivered by Hooky, but most of whom belong to Rob Gretton who is played by another relatively unknown actor, Toby Kebbel.

If I have one gripe, it was that I wasn’t initially convinced by Craig Parkinson as Tony Wilson – most probably because I found myself comparing it to the way that Steve Coogan portrayed him in 24 Hour Party People – but I did find myself loosening up a bit as the movie progressed and appreciating his performance.

And there will be some people – there always are – who will be apoplectic with rage that the film has not stuck 100% to the facts. For example, Tony Wilson introducing them on So It Goes on Granada TV. In real life, Joy Division performed Shadowplay, but the film has them playing Transmission.

There’s also a number of occasions when the need to have the movie go along at a decent pace means some things appear just a bit too melodramatic – for instance, the inspiration for the lyrics behind She’s Lost Control.

I understand that Control will be coming out in the UK early in October. I also expect that not everyone will greet it with universal approval. For instance, Kevin Cummins, another photographer who worked with the band has said “The film lacks humour. It would appear that Corbijn has bought into the mythology surrounding the band…the crypto-fascist young men in their grey overcoats from the grim north of England. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

I think that’s a bit harsh, but then again it is a fact that in just under two hours, there’s no evidence of the light-hearted side of Ian Curtis (such as the well-documented high-jinks the band got up to when they undertook a tour as support to Buzzcocks).

There will be others who just don’t get it. There’s one scathing review kicking around on the web from the Reuters Hollywood Correspondent who saw the movie at Cannes back in May. He didn’t like Control because it doesn’t live up to the 1960s black and white movies set in Northern England that often starred Albert Finney or Tom Courtenay (and which were so beloved by Morrissey).

It’s a dreadful and lazy comparison to make- the films of the 60s were based on fictional novels whereas Control is of course based on real-life events – the only thing they have in common is that they are black and white films.

It is my view that Control falls into the category of ‘must-see’, especially if you are a fan of Anton Corbijn, Joy Division, Ian Curtis or indeed Samantha Morton.

Incidentally, I’m not ashamed to admit that I was in floods of tears at the end of the movie – as was Mrs V. Yes, we both knew how it was all going to end, but that didn’t stop the intensity of the performances from the two lead roles having a huge effect on us. We weren’t the only ones sobbing and sniffing away in Toronto. So take along your hankies….

song : Joy Division – Passover

2017 update

By now, I’m guessing all of you with any interest in the band or film-making will have seen Control.  I think my initial review, written and published the following morning after its second screeing at the 2007 festival has stood up well.

JC

Madder Rose

A BAND IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME

And so to another band that were introduced to me via a mid-90s cassette compilation by Jacques the Kipper.

Madder Rose were a four-piece band from New York. The main songwriter was lead guitarist Billy Cote, but the vocal duties were taken by rhythm guitarist Mary Lorson. They emerged in 1993 with a sound quite different from the grungy stuff that had dominated indie music for the proceeding 2 years, and a million miles away from Britpop that was shortly to take over. In other words, they were doomed to be no more than a cult footnote in history thanks to being in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.

I don’t own too many of their songs – they released three LPs and handful of other singles/EPs before disbanding in 1999, but the dozen or so tracks I do have I thoroughly enjoy. Mrs V struggles to rate many bands with female singers, and Madder Rose she describes as ‘the sort of rubbish you fall for’.

Altered Images, Belly, Everything But The Girl and The Sundays are among many others that Mrs V would put in the same category….

These are the four tracks from a 10″ single released in 1994:-

mp3 : Madder Rose – Car Song
mp3 : Madder Rose – Johnny Take A Ride
mp3 : Madder Rose – The Widow Song
mp3 : Madder Rose – Holiday

Here’s another of their singles that I’m fond of, courtesy of an NME best of 93 compilation CD:-

mp3 : Madder Rose – Madder Rose

JC

Blondie

OH, OH, WHAT ARE WE GONNA DO?

One of my really young work colleagues, understandably, only knows of Blondie as being a relic of the past. The conversation had initially been sparked by a number of us talking about whether or not to have an office night out at a Blondie tribute act at a nearby location (in the end we decided against the idea), but the young ‘un was bemused that such a little-known band (in her eyes) was the subject of a tribute act not only performing but generating such interest among so many of us.

A few videos were fired up on You Tube to illustrate just how many hits there had been when Blondie were at their peak but they all meant next to nothing to a 19 year-old. The 50-somethings in the team on the other hand got very nostalgic.

I looked up the discography on wiki and found that between January 1979 and October 1980, Blondie released six singles in the UK, four of which went to #1 (Heart of Glass, Sunday Girl, Call Me and Atomic) while another was a #2 hit (Dreaming).

The odd one out was the second single lifted from the Eat to The Beat album:-

mp3 : Blondie – Union City Blue

This comparative flop stalled at #13 in November 1979. The fact that subsequent 45s hit the top spot would indicate that this was merely a small blip in an otherwise stellar performance chart wise as the decades of the 70s and 80s intertwined.

It’s no real surprise that Union City Blue didn’t quite gel with the record buying public as much as the others. It was more rock than pop and the mid-paced tempo was something that, up until now, had really only been found on album tracks or b-sides. My abiding memory of the song back in the day really centres round the video, and in particular the opening shot where an aerial shot (I’m guessing from a helicopter) zooms along a largely derelict and decaying waterfront before zooming in on the band performing on a dry dock. Debbie Harry looks more gorgeous and alluring than ever, wearing an orange jumpsuit with much of her face hidden behind aviator shades. Oh and she has a guitar around her neck which somehow only adds to the appeal.

Later shots from behind the band reveal that the dry dock is on the New Jersey shoreline as not far in the distance is the very distinctive New York skyline, a city at that time, as I’ve said before, was the one place more than any other that the 16-year old me wanted to visit.

Strange thing is, I’d forgotten how awful the second half of the video is after it switches it to the nightime footage…

Back in 1979, I wasn’t totally convinced of the merits of Union City Blue as I’d been so smitten by either the fast-paced new wave material or the more danceable stuff. In later years, as my tastes widened and matured I now find myself liking it much more than many other tracks from the post-Parallel Lines period. I’d even be willing to nowadays to classify it in the danceable category but I maybe alone with that.

It’s worth noting that the tune was penned by Nigel Harrison with Debbie adding the lyric in a rare(ish) departure from her working alongside Chris Stein. The b-side was written entirely by yet another member of the band, Jimmy Destri and was also the closing track on Eat to The Beat:-

mp3 : Blondie – Living In The Real World

JC

Momus

HELLO NEW READERS…MAYBE NOT WHAT YOU WERE EXPECTING?

I’m wondering if some of the words used in today’s posting will attract folk directed here on the basis of one word typed into a search engine.

The LP cover up above is that of a 1988 LP called Tender Pervert. The act who recorded it is Momus, a Scotsman whose real name is Nick Currie.

He calls himself Momus after the Greek god of mockery. As this wiki entry indicates, he’s been around for a while recording hyper-literate, quirky songs that have been known to blend accessible dance-pop with such heavy lyrical themes as paedophilia, necrophilia and adultery. (That’s just about a fullhouse for pervy bingo….maybe one more to come(ahem))

Actually, the stuff isn’t all that bad. I have in my possesion a copy of Tender Pervert and its by no means the worst purchase I’ve ever made. I must actually get round to giving it a proper review and posting in here some day.

Anyway, the reason I bought it was down to the fact is was cheap in a sale, and I already knew and loved one track from it, thanks to it appearing on a Creation Records compilation entitled Doing It For The Kids (this was when Creation Records was very much a vanity project for Alan McGhee and friends, way before it began to make serious money).  As referenced last year on this very blog.

mp3 : Momus – A Complete History of Sexual Jealousy (Parts 17-24)

I’m surprised that the boys and girls from New Order didn’t sue in respect of the tune….

If my stats highlight any unusual paths into TVV over the next few days, I may well draw them to your attention.

JC

Lotus Eaters

ALL DOWNHILL AFTER THE DREAMLIKE DEBUT

The Lotus Eaters were part of that great Liverpool scene of the early 80s, albeit as a band they came along after the demise of Zoo Records albeit their individual members were around at that time.

Jem Kelly had been a member of The Wild Swans whose Revolutionary Spirit/God Forbid 12″ was arguably the best 45 ever released by Zoo. Their break-up had seen vocalist Paul Simpson go off and form Care alongside Ian Broudie. Kelly, who had written the music for the Zoo singles hooked up with Peter Coyle who had sung with a number of local bands that hadn’t made any breakthrough. They turned out, initially, to be an ideal match for one another.

Such was the affection that listeners had for The Wild Swans, this new band were invited to record a session for the John Peel Show before they had signed any deal. This session, in October 1982, created a bit of a stir and a bidding war for the band, largely on the basis of one of the songs – The First Picture Of You – that had been aired during the session.

In due course, the band would sign to Arista Records for what was allegedly a decent sum of money. The first single, released in July 1983, was no surprise.

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – The First Picture Of You (12″ version)

It’s a wonderfully, dreamy, laid back piece of pop music that climbed all the way to #15 in the singles charts, spending three months in the chart. The b-sides were decent too…

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – The Lotus Eaters
mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – Stranger So Far (Peel Session)

Big things were expected of the band. But to everyone’s disappointment, the follow-up single was a flop, failing to hit the Top 40.

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – You Don’t Need Someone New

The next four months were spent working on the debut LP with a variety of producers and in April 1984 what was regarded as the strongest new song was released as the band’s third single:-

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – Set Me Apart

It sold even more poorly than the sophomore effort. All the hopes and aspirations from the time leading up to the release of the single were gone. Record company interest totally diminished almost overnight and the release of the debut LP, No Sense of Sin, was greeted with huge indifference thanks to a non-existent marketing/media campaign.

Twelve months later it was all over.

In the immediate aftermath, Jem Kelly reformed The Wild Swans while Peter Coyle recorded some solo material before immersing himself in the dance scene of the late 80s/early 90s.

And now to the postscript.

In 2001 there was a reunion of The Lotus Eaters with a new album on a Japanese-owned indie label along with some live shows. Nothing much happened for another eight years as the two protagonists did their own things in academia but in July 2009, there was seemingly a one-off concert at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall, with a string quartet, to play the songs from No Sense of Sin. The interest in and reaction to that show led to a another album of new songs in 2010 along with promotional tours of the UK and Japan. There’s been various rumours of them working together more recently but nothing concrete has emerged.

All I have in the collection is the debut single. It’s on vinyl and its more than a third of a century old. That’s my excuse for the occasional hiss, pop, crackle and jump you might hear.

Oh and here’s a copy of the Peel Session version that caused such a stir:-

mp3 : The Lotus Eaters – The First Picture Of You (Peel Session)

It is VERY Wild Swans.  Easy to see why so many record company folk were keen.

JC

XTC

THE XTC SINGLES (Part 7)

It was something of a strange decision not to follow-up ‘Nigel’ with any other track from the LP Drums and Wires. This was partly down to XTC, like many of their peers, wanting to minimise the number of singles associated with any album, but it was also linked to something mentioned in a previous post, namely that loads of new material was being written at a fantastically quick rate thanks in part to the band now having, in effect, two principal songwriters.

This led to the a non-album single being the next UK release in March 1980.

mp3 : XTC – Wait Till Your Boat Goes Down

Despite being a decent enough track, albeit at more than four minutes in length a bit of an epic as far as the singles went, this latest effort failed to trouble the charts, thus becoming the fifth successive Andy Partridge composed 45 to suffer such a fate. It’s another fine and clever lyric in which the protagonist is offering sage advice to a female of the species predicting that while her looks, wit and charm have her currently floating in exalted circles within a new and upmarket social gathering, there will inevitably come a time when she will have to rely on old friends. The tune though is a wee bit clunky and that made it less than ideal for radio play and thus difficult to pick up on.

In contrast, the single came with a quality b-side:-

mp3 : XTC – Ten Feet Tall

The original version of Ten Feet Tall was, and still is, one of the best tracks on Drums and Wires. It was the first mid-tempo love song that the band had recorded and was a pointer to where they could go in the future once the fad for new-wave had worn off (as it was already threatening to do).

The label thought that a re-recorded version with more electric rather than acoustic guitars would work as a single, primarily for an American market. And so the band re-cut the song and it was released in the USA where it sunk without trace but made available for UK fans as the b-side. If more had been made of the fact that it was a new recording – perhaps indeed going as far as making it a double-A side with the likelihood of airplay – then maybe it wouldn’t have been a flop.

I say this with a bit of conviction in that I didn’t buy Wait Till Your Boat Comes Down at the immediate time of release – I had seen copies in the shop but was, at a time when value had to be sought from any purchases, shied away as the b-side looked like it was the album version. Nothing on the sleeve indicated otherwise unless you looked closely a the name of the producer in small print. A wasted opportunity but then again, a bargain bin copy at half-price just a few weeks later was a personal consolation of sorts.

JC

Del Amitri

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #71 : DEL AMITRI

Sourced (in edited style) from wiki

Del Amitri formed in Glasgow in 1983.

The band was formed with the original line-up of Justin Currie (bass and vocals), Iain Harvie (lead guitar), Bryan Tolland (guitar) and Paul Tyagi (drums). Currie and Harvie were the only members of the band to remain present throughout its history. They were also the main songwriters of the group.

After becoming popular on the local music scene and having demo material played on DJ John Peel’s show on BBC Radio 1, the band broke through in 1984 when they were signed by Chrysalis Records, who released their eponymous début album in 1985. The band also appeared on the front cover of Melody Maker and supported The Smiths on tour. Despite this exposure, neither the album nor its singles were a success.

The band was dropped by Chrysalis but continued working together, touring the US in 1986 on a tour that was financed partly by themselves and partly by their small but enthusiastic fan base. The time they spent working on new material proved worthwhile, as they were eventually signed again in 1987, this time by A&M Records.

During the recording of the new album, which eventually came to be released as Waking Hours in 1989, the band’s line-up was further augmented by the arrival of keyboard player Andy Alston, who outside of Currie and Harvie has proven to be the longest-serving member of the band’s line-up.

Waking Hours proved to be Del Amitri’s breakthrough, reaching No.6 in the UK Albums Chart and also providing them with their biggest ever single chart hit at home when the song “Nothing Ever Happens”, rose to No 11 in the corresponding singles listing. They also gained some mainstream exposure abroad for the first time, as Waking Hours was a success in several territories with the single “Kiss This Thing Goodbye” flirting with the lower reaches of the US Billboard Hot 100’s Top 40. In between Waking Hours and their next album, the band released the single “Spit In the Rain” which, although it did not chart in the US, reached No. 21 in the UK.

The follow-up album Change Everything was released in 1992 and became the band’s biggest chart success, reaching No. 2 in the UK. The single “Always the Last to Know” was another Top 20 UK hit, peaking at No. 13, and again provided them with an entry into Top 40 in the US.

Next up was Twisted, released in 1995 and which peaked at No. 3 in the UK. The lead single “Roll to Me” was only a moderate hit in the UK where it reached No. 22 but did reach the Top 10 in the US charts, a noteworthy achievement during an era when British acts were finding success in the US difficult.

1997 saw the release of Some Other Sucker’s Parade, which was another Top 10 hit in the UK, reaching No. 6, but the band found it harder to consolidate on their previous successes in the US, however, and lost out on more airplay at home when their record company took the decision to withdraw the album’s planned third single “Medicine” in September 1997, putting out a false press story that the lyrics could be interpreted as a critique of the then recently deceased Diana, Princess of Wales.

Five years passed before Del Amitri released another album. In 1998, however, they recorded the official anthem for the Scottish World Cup squad, “Don’t Come Home Too Soon”. It reached No. 15 on the charts, becoming their third biggest UK hit and their last Top 20 entry to date. They also released their best of album, Hatful of Rain: The Best of Del Amitri, which was a No. 5 success in the UK Albums Chart and was accompanied by a new track, “Cry to Be Found”, which reached No. 40. The best of album had been released by Mercury, who took over the band’s contract after A&M had gone out of business.

The band’s final album to date, Can You Do Me Good?, was released in the spring of 2002, which was backed up with a successful UK tour. Despite their time away from the public eye, both the album, and the single “Just Before You Leave”, reached the Top 40. However, sales were not as high as Mercury had wanted and later in the year, the band was dropped from the label and broke up

Justin Currie then embarked on a solo career over the next decade without too much commercial success. In September 2013 the reunion of Del Amitri was announced with a UK tour undertaken in January 2014 including a hometown gig in front of 8,000 fand that was later released as the live album “Into the Mirror”.

I don’t own any Del Amitri songs other than the flop debut LP (which sounds nothing at all like anything they made afterwards) and some later songs that have come via compilation albums/CDs. My young brother is a bit of a fan though, so this one’s for him:-

mp3 : Del Amitri – Nothing Ever Happens

JC

Manic Street Preachers

SILVER OR GOLD WAS THE DILEMMA

The record companies really had us over a barrel in the 90s. Not only were CD singles usually retailing for £3-£5 a pop, but they were also issued in multi-formats meaning that fans/completists sometimes had to spend almost as much on one single as they would for the LP that it came from.

Sometimes I was foolish enough to buy the different formats, but quite often I would take my pick of one or the other. As I did back in 1996 when I bought something by Manic Street Preachers for the first time. Yup….confession time….my first purchase was the really big breakthrough hit.

It wasn’t that I had any dislike for the Manics in their early years, but they were very much a band that I could take or leave in equal measures. I was never moved enough by any of their first three albums or near twenty singles to spend my hard-earned cash on them – but equally I would never argue in the pub that they weren’t all they were cracked up to be. Like most music fans, I was intrigued by the appearance of band member Richey Edwards, and assumed the incident would be the end of the group.

But this, the ‘comeback’ single in April 1996 was something that I found pretty astonishing on first listen, which must have been on the radio in the morning before going to work. I recall chatting to a colleague later on in the day who I knew was a big Manics fan to tell him how impressed I was with it all, and I recall him raving down the phone that if someone like me ‘had seen the light’, then at long last the rest of the world was going to come to realise that the Welsh combo were indeed the best band that walked the planet.

Quite.

Anyways, I did go out that same day to buy the single and I was faced with the dilemma of paying £3.99 for the one in the silver sleeve with four different songs on it, or the one with the gold sleeve that had an orchestral version of the single plus a track mixed by The Chemical Brothers.

I went for the latter – something I don’t regret as I’m still quite fond of everything, and I still reckon the single is the best thing the band ever did:-

mp3 : Manic Street Preachers – A Design For Life
mp3 : Manic Street Preachers – A Design For Life (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Version)
mp3 : Manic Street Preachers – A Design For Life (Stealth Sonic Orchestra Instrumental Version)
mp3 : Manic Street Preachers – Faster (Vocal Mix – remixed by The Chemical Brothers)

JC

Spandau Ballet

EMBARRASSED BY A LOVE OF THIS ONE? NOT ME….

My mission in life, via this blog at least, is to share with you those songs and bands that have stood the test of time – the sort of stuff that doesn’t lead to ridicule. But I reckon, every now and again, its worth throwing out the musical equivalent of the curve ball – something that is rather unexpected in comparison to what you normally read about and listen to in here.

So here’s probably the best bit of bass slapping by anyone who ever appeared in Eastenders.

mp3 : Spandau Ballet – Paint Me Down (12″ mix)

This was the follow-up to Chant No.1 and was expected to maintain the sort of momentum that comes from having a radio-friendly single that goes Top 3 and which dominated the airwaves in the summer of 1981. But Paint Me Down didn’t do the business, stalling at #30, and as such indirectly led to the band taking the MOR journey to glory and its accompanying fame and fortune.

JC

Yellow Magic Orchestra

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #116 : YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA

A GUEST POSTING FROM NIK
https://critterjams.wordpress.com/

Hello there. this is Nik from the infamous occasional music blog Critter Jams. I’m sure you’ve heard of it! What? No? Well then. I was wondering if you were looking for some guest ICAs, cuz I love the idea. I see no one’s covered Yellow Magic Orchestra yet!

Are Yellow Magic Orchestra the greatest supergroup of all time? I guess it depends how you define “supergroup” and what makes one great, but I personally have difficulty thinking of another group where the members had such massive careers inside and out. I can think of great supergroups that didn’t have much else going on (ELP fit here, as good as The Nice and early King Crimson were), or supergroups that were loaded with talent but wound up rather lousy (Asia). And then you’ve got the ones that were successful, but didn’t last beyond an album or two – Derek and the Dominoes, U.K., uh…Oysterhead. You know the ones. YMO, on the other hand, they got it all. If you get hooked, welcome to your new obsession. The main issue I have with the label of YMO as the “Japanese Kraftwerk” is that Kraftwerk have gotten by on their facelessness – you don’t ever think of those guys outside of the group. How often do you see a solo album by a member of Kraftwerk? Pretty much never, that’s when – Karl Bartos thus far leads the pack with 2. Meanwhile, Yukihiro Takahashi has released 26 solo albums from 1978 to now, and he’s actually the group’s least productive member (this, of course, does not count the half-dozen bands he’s been in since then).

Doing an ICA of YMO would be fun, but it’s kind of a useless exercise. Because let’s face it, you can’t do an honest compilation of the band that didn’t include “Firecracker”, “La Femme Chinoise”, “Behind the Mask”, “Technopolis”, “Cue”, “Pure Jam”, and “Kimi Ni Mune Kyun”…which gives you room for what, three more? Too many key tracks to make it interesting, and too many changes in style to make something cohesive. So I thought I’d mix things up and come up with an Imaginary YMO-related Compilation, comprising of tracks recorded while YMO was active, but were not released under that name. An alternate history of Yellow Magic Orchestra, if you will.

One rule – all the tracks below were recorded between 1978 and 1983, the years in which YMO was active. Not only because this ensures they have the YMO sound, but also because there’s no way I could do it otherwise. Just too much good stuff to consider, and even still, it would be easy to make a second, third, even fourth volume, especially if you branch into the many, many records that these guys got production/songwriting/performer credits on.

Anyway, I decided to stick the more pop-oriented stuff on the first side, then move to more experimental material as it goes on. Here we go….again

Side A:

Yukihiro Takahashi – It’s Gonna Work Out (What, Me Worry?, 1982) (4:00)

Though Sakamoto wound up becoming YMO’s most internationally known member, for a while Takahashi was the band’s breakout star. His knack for pop music always kept the band grounded, and it’s no surprise that his concurrent solo work sounds closest to the band’s style. What, Me Worry?, recorded during YMO’s year off in ’82, seems like a grab for international stardom, with English lyrics written by Peter Barakan (who also wrote for YMO), and guest appearances by Bill Nelson and Zaine Griff. It’s a solid album, but it doesn’t get better than “It’s Gonna Work Out”, a brisk and immediately catchy technopop tune that’s very nearly derailed by Barakan/Takahashi’s remarkably straightforward and conversational lyrics (Opening lines: “I don’t want anything to do with anything that isn’t going to make the world a better place to live in, you know what I mean? There just isn’t enough time for that.”)

Haruomi Hosono – L.D.K. (Philharmony, 1982)

Hosono is one of my very favorite musicians, and it’s mostly because of stuff like this – even when he tries to do a more or less straight-forward technopop song, it still winds up sounding surreal and strange. “L.D.K.” is a fun little tune about starving yourself, featuring some real “did I just hear that?” lyrics like “my love is a tearjerker/like moldy junk food”. HH’s synth game was far ahead of the pack back then – check out the crazy instrumental bits after the chorus.

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Venezia (Left Handed Dream, 1981)

Similar to Takahashi, Sakamoto also attempted an international breakout album, a year earlier in fact. Left Handed Dream features contributions from Adrian Belew and Robin Scott, along with the other members of YMO of course. While a good half of the album is experimental and strange (unlike most of RS’s early 80’s work, which is all experimental and strange), the poppier tunes really do stand out, particularly this one, which is one of those songs that can burrow itself in your head for years. You rarely get to hear Sakamoto sing but he handles the vocals quite nicely on this one.

Yukihiro Takahashi – Drip Dry Eyes (Neuromantic, 1981)

This song features the best opening line I can think of at the moment: “Feels like I’ve been through a washing machine”. These sorts of classy ballads are where YT really makes his bread; maybe he’s not the greatest singer in the world but he’s got his Bryan Ferry imitation down pat. This is most likely Takahashi’s most covered song, and still a regular part of his live set.

Haruomi Hosono – Sports Men (Philharmony, 1982)

This may be the most by-the-book pop song Hosono ever did, and it’s a great one. So great that it often crept into YT’s sets, which strikes me as a bit odd, though this always struck me as Hosono imitating Takahashi’s style. You could be fooled – the only real giveaway (besides the singing voice) is the bizarre lyrics (“Don’t put me in skates/ping-pong I’m no great shakes”). Fun fact: this song was later brilliantly covered by Kimonos, a duo featuring Leo Imai, who would soon after co-front METAFIVE with Takahashi. Japan’s music scene is like that sometimes…

Yukihiro Takahashi – Something in the Air (Neuromantic, 1981)

Ever hear a song that you knew was going to be incredible after the first few seconds? That’s this one; another from his technopop crooner phase, and frankly one that probably didn’t need to be on this compilation, but it’s such a classic that I can’t leave it off. Still sounds like it’s from the future – never mind what it would’ve sounded like 36 years ago.

Side B:

Haruomi Hosono – Asatoya Yunta (Paraiso, 1978)

And now we get to the weird stuff. Those who know Hosono’s career know that he spent most of the 70’s making rather straightforward tropical folk music, which gradually got stranger and stranger. By the time of Paraiso, YMO had been fully assembled (it’s sometimes called the unofficial first YMO album; Sakamoto plays synths all over this thing, and Takahashi appears on drums for one song), though this is still Hosono’s rather left-of-center vision. “Asatoya Yunta” is a cover of a traditional Okinawan folk song, but Hosono’s take makes it sound both like something from a carnival and the strangest thing on the planet; the phrasing and pitching on this tune make it seem as though the vocals are backmasked, though a close listen reveals this isn’t the case. I’m not sure how to describe this one – it puts me in a weird place.

Ryuichi Sakamoto – War Head (B-side, 1980)

Now here’s a fascinating track; it’s technopop and glam rock all at once, with Bowie-like spoken word vocals and an excellent vocodered chorus. Sounds like nothing else Sakamoto ever did, or really anything else period. Amazing that it was never actually on an album – this was the B-side to “Riot in Lagos”, though a decade later it made the sort-of comp album The Arrangement, which was a reimagining of Left Handed Dream (but with English lyrics). One can only imagine what would’ve happened had Sakamoto persued this direction…

Ryuichi Sakamoto – Riot in Lagos (B-2 Unit, 1980)

And now for the A-side. What the heck year was this again? You’d never know it from this track, which all the way back in 1980 seems to predict both IDM and the future of techno, with its off-kilter rhythm and slinking melody. Granted I think all of YMO was ahead of the pack here (check out “Pure Jam”, which feels like its easily a decade ahead of its time), but this track in particular feels like an important missing link. Its parent album, B-2 Unit, is full of stuff like that – a truly experimental, one-of-a-kind effort, though sadly just a brief phase in Sakamoto’s career.

Haruomi Hosono – Shimendoka (Paraiso, 1978)

Another one from Paraiso. This one seems particularly emblematic of what Hosono does – write a nice tune and then corrupt it in some way. Not in an overt, obvious way, but rather do something that makes the whole thing sound off. In this case there’s two things – Hosono’s voice, which as always, just seems wrong for this kind of song, and those plinking synth tones, which sound like someone who doesn’t belong on the recording playing along, unaware. Needless to say, absolutely brilliant.

Akiko Yano – Rose Garden (Tadaima, 1981)

Now it’s time to get into the YMO family a little bit. An ICA could easily be made of this stuff alone, so I figured I’d put a taste on here. Akiko Yano is a jazz pianist who was married to Sakamoto for a long time, who put out a number of absolutely gorgeous records on her own. During YMO’s run she often palled around with the guys, often performing live with them, and one of her songs (“Rocket Factory”) became a YMO live sample. It helped that she can actually sing, whereas the guys in YMO really couldn’t. For a few records YMO functioned as Yano’s backing band, and the influence can really be felt here, with this Sakamoto-produced disc that came right as he was entering his most experimental phase. The whole disc is great, but this tune in particular stands out; another one that feels way ahead of its time, featuring the sort of complex electronic rhythm you just didn’t hear in the early 80’s. Not to mention those vocal effects, which still feel like they’re from another planet.

Logic System – Logic (Logic, 1981)

Logic System is the solo project of Hideki Matsutake, the sequencer wizard who often carried the title of YMO’s “fourth member” (as he appears on nearly all their recordings). Logic is one of those great unheralded electronic albums, veering somewhere between the technopop of YMO and the trippy spacejams of guys like Klaus Schulze. While none of the members of YMO actually appear here, it is of interest to anyone who’s a fan, as you’ll recognize a lot of the same sounds. The title track isn’t exactly emblematic of the album as a whole, but it’s the most catchy and fun thing on it, reminiscent of the goofier stuff on Xoo Multiplies. Seems like the perfect track to cap things off; fascinating but also a bit silly, much like YMO was throughout their entire career.

NIK

JC adds……

To me, this is the brilliance of the ICA series, and in particular, the guest postings.  Like those, for example, from George (Captain Beefheart) from Strangeways (Tilly and The Wall), from JTFL (Spoon) and from Charity Chic (Dwight Yoakim), this is a posting on a band/singer that I knew nothing at all about other than the name and in this instance that loads of high-profile Western musicians have been fans of YMO for decades.

Many thanks to Nik for such an enthusiatic and brilliantly informative, as well as enjoyable ICA.  Cheers.

Elastica

ROUNDING UP ALL THEIR SINGLES

OK.

I’ve said before that so many of their best songs being total rip-offs is a bit cringeworthy, but at the same time there’s no denying that the six singles put out by Deceptive Records between 1993 and 2000 were magnificent:-

mp3 : Elastica – Stutter (Oct 93 – did not chart)
mp3 : Elastica – Line Up (Jan 94 – #20 in UK singles chart)
mp3 : Elastica – Connection (Oct 94 – #17 in UK singles chart)
mp3 : Elastica – Waking Up (Feb 95 – #13 in UK singles chart)
mp3 : Elastica – How He Wrote Elastica Man (Aug 99 – did not chart)
mp3 : Elastica – Mad Dog (June 00 – #44 in UK singles chart)

Bonus track….the farewell single.  Issued on Wichita Records. All 80 seconds of it.

mp3 : Elastica – The Bitch Don’t Work (Nov 01 – did not chart)

Worth mentioning that the self-titled LP went to #1 in the UK in March 1995 and sophomore effort The Menace peaked at #24 in April 2000.

JC

Uncategorized

BONUS POST : A VERY QUICK THANK YOU

Folks, how was your weekend?

I certainly hope it was bit less stressful and worrying than it was for my young brother SC, a long-time friend of this blog who pops in every day and leaves the occasional comment – especially when I’ve said something nice about Simple Minds.

The photo above was taken by SC on Saturday afternoon as he and his family (including the dog) were hurriedly evacuating their home not far from Orlando, Florida as a brush fire closed in very suddenly. It was a fire that, at its height, covered 165 acres – and an acre is the size of your average football pitch – so it was a big and dangerous motherfucker.

SC’s home was in serious danger of being burned to the ground, thus the urgent evacuation. The flames got to within 15 feet of the property but thanks to the skills and talents of the Seminole County firefighters, and the deployment of helicopters to pour down huge amounts of water from a great height, the danger was narrowly averted

SC was out of his home for nearly 24 hours before being allowed to return. He tells me, unsurprisingly, that there is very severe smoke damage to the house while it took a pounding from the water that was being dropped from the chopper – his solar panels are goosed while ash from the flames has created holes in the roof. And that’s just for starters.  The clean-up will take months and a lot of dollars.

The cause of the fire will be investigated but it is possible it was caused by a discarded cigarette that set flame to a grassy wooded area that was bone dry from months of no rain. Words fail me that someone could be so careless.

But the purpose of this additional post is just to say a huge thanks to the brave men and women who tackled the blaze over the weekend – and indeed are still on-site as 48 hours on it is still only 90-95% under control – and indeed for the public service they put in each and every single day of the year.

JC

Siddeleys

ONE FOR AFICIONADOS OF THE C86 GENRE

Actually….it’s not one, it’s four. And they’re for fans of witty, intelligent and catchy pop music no matter the genre.

I featured The Siddeleys back in 2015 during the year-long look at acts which had been on CD86: 48 Tracks from the Birth of Indie Pop. I said at the time they were are one of those bands that sometimes cropped up in conversation but of whom I knew nothing until I did some research on them for that series.

Debut single What Went Wrong This Time? is one of the real highlights on the CD86 compilation and as such begs the question as to what went wrong for The Siddeleys as they never enjoyed any real success. After all, the NME had described the debut, in July 1987, as a “gentle teasing lament with cool female vocals and a lilting backing which trickles around the back of the nervous system with deceptive charm”.

The main issue was that it took a full year for the follow-up to appear by which time the band were on a third drummer. They had also switched labels to Sombrero Records and in August 1988 a 12″ single was released :-

mp3 : The Siddeleys – Sunshine Thuggery
mp3 : The Siddeleys – Are You STILL Evil When You’re Sleeping?
mp3 : The Siddeleys – Falling Off My Feet Again
mp3 : The Siddeleys – Bribes and Bruises

The lead-track combines the best of Close Lobsters, June Brides and Orange Juice. High praise I know….but in this case it is merited.

The other three tracks are also great slabs of music that deserve to be much better known than they are.

As I mentioned last time out, the band recorded two Peel Sessions in late 88/early 89 but plans for a third single were dashed when the record label ran out of money and when no other offers emerged they soon called it a day.

Incidentally, anyone who has a vinyl copy of this 12″ is sitting on something of value. The only one for sale on Discogs just now has an asking price of £60. So I’ll mention that these mp3s are not ripped from any vinyl!

JC

XTC

THE XTC SINGLES (Part 6)

At last, at last, at last. A hit single in September 1979. It reached #17.

mp3 : XTC – Making Plans For Nigel

Jonny the Friendly Lawyer said this when he included it within an XTC ICA a while back:-

One of the band’s best known and loved songs, but what is it about, exactly? Parents planning their child’s future? A comment on English society’s emphasis on steady employment? Never been able to work that out, but I do love this number.

Colin Moulding has said it is semi-autobiographical in that his parents weren’t sure about his efforts to pursue a career as a musician and tried to persuade him to remain at school and get enough qualifications to go to university.

Lyrically, it was a brilliantly timed song. The British Steel Corporation (BSC), for so long a cornerstone of the UK economy at a national and many local levels, was now in deep financial trouble and making huge losses, largely from the fact that the more modern plants elsewhere in Europe and further afield could easily supply the products to manufacturers much more cheaply. Nigel, or indeed anyone, didn’t appear to have too much of a future,and indeed there soon followed a high number of plant closures in the early 80s that put tens of thousands of men out of work and with few prospects.

But having said all that it is the tune that was responsible for the single getting loads of airtime and leading to enough sales to finally propel the band into the charts. I think that has a lot to do with the sound of the drums which were quite unusual for the time in question as well as the nagging riff that once heard isn’t easy to forget….in a good way!!  Oh,  and it’s worth mentioning that the single edit is some 20 seconds shorter than that which would appear later on Drums And Wires.

Two tracks on the b-side, one being the second in the Homo Safari set of tunes referred to last time out:-

mp3 : XTC – Bushman President

The other is a short 90-second track that has a catchy, infectious riff but sort of feels a bit like a demo that never really developed much:-

mp3 : XTC – Pulsing, Pulsing

JC

Dead Hope

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #70 : DEAD HOPE

Dead Hope are a three-piece group from Glasgow.

They were initially brought to my attention by Basil Pieroni of Butcher Boy as he is good mates with one of the guys in the band who, many years ago, was also part of The Big Gun as featured previously in this series.

Back in August 2015, I was given a copy of a single by Dead Hope. I described it then as bringing back memories of that warm noisy fuzzbox sound that was very fashionable for a period back in the 80s while there’s a hint of the much missed Urusei Yatsura about them too.

mp3 : Dead Hope – Swordz

I didn’t manage to ge along and see the band when they played some live shows to promote the single. I’m hoping they have some shows planned this year so that I can rectify things.

JC