THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

WHEN THE MUSIC AND LYRICS PROVE EQUALLY BRILLIANT

Second posting about this artiste in quick succession. But this time it doesn’t feature his inital backing band and it only highlights how even two ICAs wouldn’t really do justice.

There are times when its the music that makes a song so utterly fantastic. Then there are other times when its the lyrics that make a song so utterly memorable. And just sometimes, both music and lyrics are as stunning as the other…

in 1986, the LP King Of America was released. It was the tenth LP in the career of Elvis Costello, and for the first time in seven years he hadn’t relied on the talents of The Attractions. Instead, it was a record released by The Costello Show featuring the Attractions and Confederates. Another change was that the songs were credited to Declan McManus, the singer’s real as opposed to stage name.

The Confederates were not a band as such, but instead a collection of top session musicians, most of whom had played and recorded with Elvis Presley. Some folk reckon its this fact that led to the songs not being credited to the be-spectacled Elvis….

Now I’m no great expert on every recording made by Elvis Costello, but I usually argue that this is the best LP he ever made. It’s a truly stunning bit of work that contains lyrics that go in many different directions – there’s the bitter and twisted, the poetically lovely, the hilarious put-downs and the occasional bit of self-deprecation – all underscored by some of the best and most varied music he would ever commit to one LP. As evidenced by the words to Brilliant Mistake, the LP’s opener:-

He thought he was the King of America
Where they pour Coca Cola just like vintage wine
Now I try hard not to become hysterical
But I’m not sure if I am laughing or crying

I wish that I could push a button
And talk in the past and not the present tense
And watch this hurtin’ feeling disappear
Like it was common sense
It was a fine idea at the time
Now it’s a brilliant mistake

She said that she was working for the ABC News
It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use
Her perfume was unspeakable
It lingered in the air
Like her artificial laughter
Her mementos of affairs

“Oh” I said “I see you know him”
“Isn’t that very fortunate for you”
And she showed me his calling card
He came third or fourth and there were more than one or two

He was a fine idea at the time
Now he’s a brilliant mistake

He thought he was the King of America
But it was just a boulevard of broken dreams
A trick they do with mirrors and with chemicals
The words of love in whispers
And the axe of love in screams

I wish that I could push a button
And talk in the past and not the present tense
And watch this lovin’ feeling disappear
Like it was common sense

I was a fine idea at the time
Now I’m a brilliant mistake

This would stand alone as a near perfect bit of poetry – and like so many of the best poems, it has a number of interpretations.

EC himself in an interview in 1986 said:-

“Brilliant Mistake is a sad song, but it’s also sort of funny. It’s about America and it’s about lost ambition, not lack of inspiration. It’s about a disappointed or frustrated belief. It’s a song that people are going to read wrong. One line in it is, ‘There’s a trick they do with mirrors and with chemicals.’ It means celluloid and mirrors, movie cameras. It occurred to me the other day that people will think it’s a reference to cocaine. “

However, a more commonly held view was that Elvis was in the midst of a very painful and messy divorce, and that the heart of the song was a criticism of himself and his behaviour.

mp3 : The Costello Show – Brilliant Mistake

Now I make no apologies for adding a second song to this post – another from the LP and the track that I believe is the best he’s ever recorded:-

mp3 : The Costello Show – Little Palaces

This is basically a solo song – the acoustic guitar and mandolin are played by Elvis, with just a hint of string bass to back it up, played by Jerry Scheff. The closing few minutes of this song often bring a tear to my eye – the raw and powerful images invoked by the lyric and the traditional almost folk-like music.

I remember also when this LP was released that many long-time fans thought this would be the end of The Attractions. But instead, within six months, another LP – Blood & Chocolate – was released, and this was a bona fide band record.

And sometimes I think that just might be the best EC album……

Happy Listening.

Sonic Youth

ONLY THEIR SECOND TIME ON THESE PAGES

sonic-youth-100-one-hundred-108735

It was earlier this year that jimdoes, in pulling together an excellent ICA on Sonic Youth, took a deserved sideways swipe at me for never previously having featured the band.

It’s now been 35 years since Sonic Youth began to make music and 5 years since they broke up. They’re yet another act who have never appear to have been all that bothered about breaking into the mainstream or even enjoying moderate chart success, even when during the 90s they were on the roster of Geffen Records, part of the giant MCA media operations.

One of the reasons they weren’t here before the ICA is that I can’t really class myself as a fan of Sonic Youth; I’m more of an admirer owning a couple of albums and a copy of the DVD compilation of the videos they have made over the years to go with the various singles from the 90s.

One of the albums I do have is Dirty released in 1992. Or as someone once said to me, the record the band made when asked to try to come up with something as spectacular as had been delivered by Nirvana.

Dirty was produced by Butch Vig, who was of course at the helm of Nevermind.

Dirty, unlike any other Sonic Youth LP spawned four singles, two of which made the Top 30 in the UK charts.

This was the lead-off single and opening track on the LP (together with its b-sides):-

mp3 : Sonic Youth – 100%
mp3 : Sonic Youth – Creme Brulee
mp3 : Sonic Youth – Genetic
mp3 : Sonic Youth – Hendrix Necro

Released in July 1992, it peaked at #28 in the UK, and provided the band with their biggest ever success in their homeland with a #4 placing on the Modern Rock Tracks chart. While this was impressive enough for a band that had always been cult more than anything else, it was probably a disappointment to the label bosses who must have realised that Sonic Youth just wouldn’t ever make the crossover to mass popularity and millions of sales the world over.

The video was one of the first to be made by acclaimed director and occasional actor Spike Jonze.

Two and a half minutes that did more to glamorise skateboarding than just about anything else and thus made walking around pedestrianised areas in city centres a dangerous occupation forever more.

But you gotta admit its a cracking tune.

The The

SOUL MINING

soul_mining

While Matt Johnson had previously made Burning Blue Soul as a solo record , Soul Mining was the first album by The The, and was released to huge critical acclaim in October 1983. Indeed, a few years ago at the official website of The The, you could re-read endorsements from all four of the UK’s weekly music papers (NME, Sounds, Record Mirror and Melody Maker), as well as broadsheet newspapers and glossy magazines; there was even a thumbs-up from Smash Hits. But surely the most bizarre positive rating was this:-

“Soul Mining is certainly something to be treasured. One of those integrity leaden packages which manages to be both experimental and accessible.”
* (source at the foot of the page).

There’s only seven tracks on the vinyl version of the LP with only three songs appearing on Side B. The Ramones it certainly wasn’t.

Most songs were at least 5 minutes long, with one stretching out to almost 10 minutes. But Genesis or Pink Floyd it certainly wasn’t.

From the opening countdown of ten-to-zero (which sounds as if it was sampled from an Apollo space mission) right through to the incessant beat and chanting of the closing song, this is an LP that has a bit of everything thrown in. Bitter and twisted lyrics of despair and attacks on Thatcherism nestle alongside songs about love, lust and devotion. But it’s very much the music that carries this album along.

The The, at the outset, hadn’t been a band. It was a vehicle for Matt Johnson who preferred to write and sing songs backed by synthesizers and drum machines. But for Soul Mining other talents were brought into the studio, not least Zeke Manyika of Orange Juice – a hugely underrated drummer – and Jools Holland who contributed an astonishing piano solo to transform an older The The song – Uncertain Smile.

The use of these talents, combined with Matt’s growing confidence in his abilities as a vocalist, produced a piece of work that, in the opinion of this humble scribe, has not dated one iota.

I sometimes think Matt Johnson was someone just a little bit ahead of his time. Some ten years later, Thom Yorke and Radiohead came along with a similar style and approach that made them media darlings. And while I am very fond of The Bends and OK Computer, I do honestly believe that Soul Mining and its follow-up Infected are every bit as good. But I’m obviously in a minority going by poll after poll.

The full track listing of Soul Mining:-

01 I’ve Been Waitin’ For Tomorrow (All Of My Life)
02 This Is The Day
03 The Sinking Feeling
04 Uncertain Smile
05 The Twilight Hour
06 Soul Mining
07 Giant

Initial copies came with a free 12″ single, and one of these tracks – Perfect – became an eighth track on the CD version of the album released in 1987 but seemingly much to Matt’s displeasure as it was removed for the 2002 re-issue so that the album was again, just the seven tracks.

Soul Mining ranks high among my favourite albums of all time. That is all.

mp3 : The The – I’ve Been Waitin’ For Tomorrow (All Of My Life)
mp3 : The The – Giant

*Oh and the unlikely plug for the album back in 1983 was from Penthouse magazine.

Warlock Pinchers

A SENSE OF HUMOUR IS ESSENTIAL

This came to me originally via a JtK compilation cassette, a few months after which I spotted a copy of the 12″ vinyl in a second-hand rack and despite the fact that I was increasingly moving onto CDs and rarely buying vinyl (which after all was in its death-throes) I had to own it.

The sleeve, as you can see, has an image of a young and be-quiffed Morrissey and he even contributes a spoken intro and outro to the track although I’ve a very strong feeling that these were sampled without his agreement given that the noise in between these contributions is anything but a tribute to him. Indeed it is all rather juvenile and puerile but the thing is, if I listen to it every two years or so, I find it funny. More than that and it would probably annoy me.

What I do smile about is the thought of all of the Morrissey ultras out there who don’t think he can ever do anything wrong hearing this played and immediately issuing their equivalent of a fatwa.

mp3 : Warlock Pinchers – Morrissey Rides A Cockhorse

The band was from Denver and t’internet throws up info that they were more or less a punk comedy band who didn’t take anything all that seriously but played music in a loud and raucous way that made their live shows pretty memorable for anyone in the crowd….sometimes for all the wrong reasons. About a decade or so later, a few bands took their look, image and sound and added in a bit of attitude around the skateboard scene, and made a fair bit of money along the way. Then again, such bands knew that while cursing and swearing on stage was acceptable, it was a strict no-no when it came to actual records.

This particular single was released in 1989 by the San Francisco based Tupelo Recording Company. Looking at Discogs, there’s eight LPs/singles/compilations listed for The Warlock Pinchers between 1987 and 1991 across four different labels which perhaps indicates that even the record company bosses had difficulty pitching their product to the marketplace.

Enjoy.

Breeders

SAFARI

The Breeders were kicking around as a band long before they ever got into a recording studio. It was the brainchild of Kim Deal and Kelley Deal. They happened to be twin sisters. But before they could really do anything with the band, Kim found fame as bass player with The Pixies.

In late 1989, seemingly tired of her band’s refusal to record songs she had written, Kim re-formed The Breeders as a side project. She did not however, include her sister in the band – instead recruiting a group of close friends and fellow musicians including Tanya Donnelly from Throwing Muses.

Their debut album Pod, recorded in Edinburgh, Scotland, was released in 1990. Not long after, The Pixies broke-up. Whether or not the two events were linked, no-one is really prepared to say, but you can draw your own conclusions.

Kim decided to concentrate fully on The Breeders, and her twin sister came on board for the next set of recordings, which resulted in the four songs on this very fine 1992 EP:-

mp3 : The Breeders – Do You Love Me Know?
mp3 : The Breeders – Don’t Call Home
mp3 : The Breeders – Safari
mp3 : The Breeders – So Sad About Us

That’s the order the songs appear on the CD – alphabetically as it turns out – but it was track 3 Safari for which the promo video was made. It’s a belter of a track that wouldn’t have been out of place on any Pixies record.

The fourth track is a cover version of a song by The Who (a song that had also coincidentally been covered some 14 years earlier by The Jam). It has been suggested by some that it is a sarcastic attack by Kim on the break-up of her other band.

This particular line-up of The Breeders proved to be short-lived. Tanya Donnelly went off to front her own band – Belly – while there was also a change of drummer.

Mark III of The Breeders would then find some fame and fortune in 1993, with the hit single Cannonball and the LP Last Splash. Incidentally a different, more refined version of Do You Love Me Now? from Safari was recorded for Last Splash.

Enjoy

Buzzcocks

BUZZCOCKS SINGLES 77-80 (Part 8)

The Buzzcocks juggernaut showed no signs of slowing down as yet another brand new song became the latest 45 in March 1979.

However, this one didn’t do as well as hoped or expected, spending a miserly four weeks in the Top 40 and peaking at #29.

Not everybody would be happy nowadays.

I do recall there being something of a critical backlash against the band around this time. Magazine had just released their second studio LP, Secondhand Daylight and its ambition and breadth led some to suggest that Pete Shelley was a bit of a one-trick pony incapable of lacing the Doc Martins of his former band mate. The fact that the new Buzzcocks single had the vocalist straining to hit the high notes was also a source of some amusement and ‘Happy’ took a bit of a caning when compared to what had been written before.

mp3 : Buzzcocks – Everybody’s Happy Nowadays
mp3 : Buzzcocks – Why Can’t I Touch It?

The b-side is a strange one. A band which specialised in the classic 2-3 minute pop song put down something that stretched out over six minutes. This could have been a pleasant surprise except for the fact that the song is not all that good and leaves listeners pining for the more simple shouty catchy stuff of old,

Butcher Boy

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #45 : BUTCHER BOY

1809-vv-butcher-boy-gig-posterpr-page-001

That’s the poster from the first ever gig that I promoted. It was for Butcher Boy (supported by Adam Stafford) and it was to enable the full band to play in support of the release of their third studio LP, Helping Hands.

Imperial was the sole single taken from the album and on the reverse of the 7″ vinyl was a previously unreleased track, one that I’ve never until now put anywhere near the blog as I was keen that folk bought the actual vinyl. Still, its now more than 5 years and so I don’t feel bad about sharing it:-

mp3 : Butcher Boy – Juicy Fruit

Enjoy.

Arab Strap

ONLY ONE MORE SLEEP

As much as I have loved the solo output from Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton, I have hugely missed Arab Strap.

This however, is the week they are playing a short tour of gigs in London, Manchester and Glasgow. My ticket is for tomorrow night for the Barrowlands, my favourite venue in the world. I’ll do my best to avoid looking at the setlists from the gigs in England so that I get the full element of surprise. But given how excited so many folk have been about this reunion then I’m sure it’ll be all over social media and near impossible to ignore.

In celebration of what will be a highlight of my year, I’m posting a single from back in 1998. It’s a different version of the song Soaps that appears on their peerless 1998 LP Philophobia. I’ve also pulled together the various b-sides from the 7″ and 12″ versions

mp3 : Arab Strap – (Afternoon) Soaps
mp3 : Arab Strap – Phone Me Tomorrow
mp3 : Arab Strap – Toy Fights
mp3 : Arab Strap – Forest Hills

I’ve also decided to post the video as it is unusual in a number of ways.

Firstly, it is the extremely rare sight of a clean-shaven Aidan. Secondly, Malcolm appears in the video for a short time – and from what I remember it’s the only time he ever does in any of the Arab Strap promos that were made.

I’ve a feeling the video inspired this great promo six years later:-

Enjoy.

Just as I thought my weekend couldn’t get any better, I’m off tonight to an unusual gig in an unusual venue.

The Citizens Theatre in Glasgow is the venue. This weekend sees the The Citz Sessions, a short series of specially-curated gigs hosted in what is a magnificent and intimate Victorian auditorium. Guest curators have brought together some of their favourite artists to present an intimate, stripped-back, acoustic performance in the iconic surroundings of the theatre.

Tonight is an all-female line up from the worlds of jazz, classical and pop – the latter being represented by the new in the shape of TeenCanteen and the established via Frances McKee (Vaselines) and Clare Grogan. Can’t really ask for much more can I?

Bjork

DEBUT : TWO CONTRASTING OPINIONS

I’ve been lucky enough to be a guest contributor over at the ongoing series at When You Can’t Remember Anything in which S-WC and Badger run through 200 great songs. As indeed has The Robster who penned some wonderful words about Human Behaviour which then extended out into his thoughts on Debut:-

I remember when Human Behaviour came out (June 1993). I had been a massive fan of the Sugarcubes and Björk was, for me, the quirkiest pop star on the planet. I was gutted when they split as I had never managed to see them live, and let’s face it, three albums was simply not enough. You can imagine my excitement when I heard Björk was going solo and that within a year of the ‘Cubes break-up, her first single would be out.

I don’t know why, but I was expecting something very different to Human Behaviour, something – I dunno – more indie? The final Sugarcubes release was a brilliant album of remixes featuring some of the top producers of the time (Justin Robertson, Todd Terry, Marius deVries, etc) so I should have been prepared for something a little more electronic I suppose. But no, I heard Human Behaviour and my heart sunk.

I’ve come to like Human Behaviour quite a bit in the intervening years. Those timpani drums that echo throughout in time (and tune) with the bass make it sound all brooding and ominous. There’s a lot of cool stuff going on in it, and it’s not all that electronic-sounding really. Some nice growling guitars, an understated rustling snare drum and, of course, Björk’s voice at the centre of it all. It’s masterfully put together, a great production by Nellee Hooper. In fact, it’s not unlike Massive Attack in places, probably for that reason.

The album – craftily-titled ‘Debut’, even though it was actually Björk’s second solo effort, following some 16 years after this [https://www.discogs.com/Bj%C3%B6rk-Gu%C3%B0mundsd%C3%B3ttir-Bj%C3%B6rk/master/1870] – sounds rather dated to these ears nowadays. Human Behaviour still stands up, probably because it is the least electronic track on it. I also still love Crying. But the trouble with electronic music is that it rarely stands the test of time, the sounds get left behind as the technology changes. A lot of ‘Debut’ suffers from that, I reckon.

Reading that led me to dig deep into the vaults of the few postings kicking around from the old blog and to offer this alternative view that I put up back in October 2009:-

I was an admirer of the music released by The Sugarcubes in as much that I bought singles and albums, but usually a few weeks or months after they had been released rather than on the day they hit the shops.

I was slightly sorry to learn of their break-up in 1992, and while I was interested to hear that their female lead singer was going to pursue a solo career I didn’t think it was one that would have a big impact outside of her native Iceland…….(glad I never put a bet on that one at the bookies)

This was another of the records that I first heard snippets of in a record shop while browsing. I recognised that Bjork was singing, but my first assumption was that she was doing guest vocals for someone else. It was only after the third or fourth track in row to feature her talents that I thought there was more to it, and this was confirmed by the ever-friendly indie-store sales assistant. He also told me that in the week or so since the CD had arrived in the shop it had been on very heavy rotation as it was that rare beast – ie an album that found favour with all four folk who worked in the shop.

I told him I was a fan of her former band – he replied that it was nothing at all like any of the old stuff. And he also offered me, as a well-known face in the shop who spent something in the region of £40 a week on CDs, a free copy over the weekend that I could bring back on Monday morning if I didn’t like it. And if I did…..well it would be added to my next bill.

I don’t know how many times the CD was played over the course of that Friday night, the Saturday and the Sunday, suffice to say that not many other things got a look in.

Debut is a record that shifts from one music genre to another with the greatest of ease, class and style (another record that I think does the same is Boat To Bolivia by Martin Stephenson & The Daintees). As such, it is impossible to get bored with it. It’s a combination of the songwriting genius of Ms Gudmunsdottir and magical production from Nellee Hooper (and no I haven’t forgotten that he also co-wrote at least half of the songs).

I listened to this album in its entirety again in the last hour, something I probably haven’t done in 10 or so years. It has not dated one bit whatsoever. It still made me smile, it made me dance and it stopped me in my tracks and made me think about loved ones present and past.

It’s a truly remarkable piece of work.

It was an album that was a slow-burner. It spent ages in the UK charts but never got any higher than #3. Four singles were taken from it, and in a strange reversal from the norm, they reached progressively higher chart positions, with the lead-off Human Behaviour hitting #36 in June 1993. Venus As A Boy touched #29 in August, while Big Time Sensuality climbed to #17 on its release in November. However, in March 1994, Violently Happy reached #13.

If you don’t own this record, do something about it.

So there you are.

Two contrasting views from bloggers whose tastes tend to be quite similar. Incidentally, I’m not saying I’m right and that The Robster is wrong….I just felt it was a good way of illustrating the diverse opinions that can exist and why the whole notion of simply liking or disliking a piece of music just because someone else has said something good or bad about it is utter bollocks.

It’s also why I believe anyone with a taste or passion for music should never be afraid to express their views and thoughts…..and if you want to do so via a guest posting on T(n)VV then don’t be slow at coming forward.

In the meantime……

mp3 : Bjork – Big Time Sensuality
mp3 : Bjork – Come To Me
mp3 : Bjork – Crying
mp3 : Bjork – Violently Happy (Fluke – Even Tempered Mix)

Enjoy

PS : Talking of WYCRA, word reaches me that Badger is on the mend after a wee bit of surgery. It’s also likely that S-WC, having moved house and got his wi-fi up and running more quickly than he expected, may be posting again, if not today then in the near future. It’s only been a few days but they have been missed.

Black Grape

IT WAS AN AMAZING AND UNEXPECTED COMEBACK

Black+Grape+blackgrape1995

With the demise of Factory Records in late 1992, you would have been forgiven for thinking that the musical world had seen the back of Shaun Ryder. In fact, you wouldn’t have got many folk disagreeing with the view that his time on planet earth itself was most likely coming to an end such was his drug addiction problem.

There were reports in the music press that he was forming a new band, along with his old sidekick Bez, as well as some other musicians from the Manchester scene, including members of Ruthless Rap Assassins and Paris Angels. But for months there was nothing coming out of the studio except rumours that Shaun, far from heading for an early grave, was in fact writing some of his best ever material.

I’m sure I first heard Black Grape on Radio 1 in mid 1995 when I was sitting in a car being driven to a midweek football match – which would probably mean it was on a show hosted by Steve Lamacq and/or Jo Whiley. I remember the other person in the car, who was about as far away from being a fan of the Happy Mondays as you could imagine, saying that he thought it was an amazing song, and I just knew from that sort of reaction that Shaun really was on to something pretty special.

The band were given a big lift with the endorsement of Radio 1 breakfast DJ and TV presenter Chris Evans, who was responsible for bringing a lot of the new Britpop bands to wider attention. But there was never any way that Black Grape could be linked into that genre..the fact they were in existence for a few short years at the height of Britpop was a mere coincidence…

For about 12 months from the summer of 1995, Black Grape released an incredible body of work, with five Top 20 singles (including an alternative football anthem to coincide with England hosting Euro 96) and an album, It’s Great When You’re Straight….Yeah, which hit the #1 spot. Sadly, the momentum wasn’t maintained, and by the time the follow-up album Stupid Stupid Stupid came out in 1997, the band were beginning to fall apart with drink, drugs and illness taking their toll individually and collectively. They split in early 1998….

Black Grape may not have been with us all that long, but it was great fun while it lasted. Just about all of their singles are belters with some of the best lyrics Shaun has ever written.

mp3 : Black Grape – Reverend Black Grape
mp3 : Black Grape – In The Name Of The Father
mp3 : Black Grape – Kelly’s Heroes
mp3 : Black Grape – Fat Neck
mp3 : Black Grape – England’s Irie
mp3 : Black Grape – Get Higher
mp3 : Black Grape – Marbles

A fairly magnificent 7 right enough (for the most part…Fat Neck isn’t that good).

Elvis Costello & The Attractions

FAST, FRENETIC, FEROCIOUS AND FABULOUS

So there I was making my way through the really enjoyable Unfaithful Music and Disappearing Ink when I got to a few paras on Pages 347-348 that made me put down the book and fire up the laptop:-

Yet in the midst of all these follies we stumbled into a television studio in Cologne and delivered the only videotaped performance of us in which I can begin to see what all the fuss was about.

It’s clear from the off tha we went on spoiling for a fight, clearly uncomfortable about playing in front of a sedate, long-haired crowd that looked as if it might have come to see Tangerine Dream.

Pete Thomas opened the first number with more of a drum solo than his usual drum into of ‘Mystery Dance’. We played three songs straight off at top speed before I yelped an unconvincing ‘Good evening’.

My manner was sullen, almost as if I was in a hurry to get this over with, in stark contrast to the rather open-faced portrait from the back of ‘My Aim Is true’ that was blown up as a backdrop to the tiny stage. Bruce Thomas was prowling round on his side of the stage, and Steve Nieve was wearing a mean pair of shades and playing the toy-town keyboard setup that was all that was at his disposal then.

The studio was airless and asphyxiating under the hot television lights and as the fuel of our initial liftoff was burned away, we had to create some space in the songs from ‘This Year’s Model’ just to catch our breath. The songs from ‘My Aim Is True’ were barely recognisable and we even previewed a new song called ‘Two Little Hitlers’, the title of which was a provocation in itself.

Singing directly into the camera had always looked ridiculous when I was lip-synching, but this was real flesh and blood, spit and sweat and strain. My gestures and peculiar movements would be flattered by any description as dancing, but they were directed straight at the viewer, ignoring the studio audience completely.

This was television, not a picture of somebody playing in a box.

We ran one song into the next, not risking the absence of applause, and tried to blow ‘Night Rally’ to pieces before careering through a finale of four fast songs from ‘This Year’s Model’, leaving the ‘Rockpalast’ studio without a backward glance.

Strangely enough, that tape contains the last trace of my innocence and utter conviction before the songs began playing me.

I put the book down as I simply had to see if the performance matched the hype of Elvis’s build-up.

It does. It really does. Especially those four songs that come back-to-back from 24:40 onwards.

Set list:-

01 Mystery Dance
02 End Of The World
03 Lip Service
04 Two Little Hitlers
05 The Beat
06 Night Rally
07 This Year’s Girl
08 No Action
09 (I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea
10 Lipstick Vogue
11 Watching The Detectives
12 Pump It Up
13 You Belong To Me

It’s watching such a performance that makes me realise how much of an impossible task it would be to come up with an ICA given how many songs from this era really need to be included and yet how many great songs were still to be written and recorded in the years still to come. So I’m happy to duck out and say that Elvis Costello will be the subject of the Sunday singles series as and when that of Buzzcocks comes to an end.

The other thing this performance captures is the talents of all four musicians. A few pages previously in the book, Elvis had acknowledged this saying that:-

The difference was that The Attractions could play rings around everyone else. I just had to stand in the middle and sing. I can’t think of anyone else in the class of ’77 who could have played the piano intro of ‘Little Triggers’, let alone the bass and drums of ‘Lipstick Vogue’, a song which was taken at a tempo that was just this side of impossible in the studio and even faster and more ferocious in a live performance.

mp3 : Elvis Costello & The Attractions – Lipstick Vogue

Fancy a cover version?

mp3 : Andrew Poppy & Claudia Brucken – Lipstick Vogue

Enjoy.

Blur

A REAL GROWER….

Blur-Beetlebum-76612

The Blur v Oasis ‘war’ of 1995 had swung one way then the other. The Essex band were declared the initial winners thanks to Country House beating Roll With It to the #1 spot but before long the Gallagher Bros had captured the hearts and wallets of a nation once they heard Wonderwall.

Come 1997 a new and different sounding Blur emerged. The fun-loving Britpop band had gone to be replaced by an altogether more serious sounding lot. There was an edge to the lyrics, but much more impressively, there was also an edge to the music. Above all else, where Oasis had seemingly stood still and simply wanted to regurgitate the songs that were the cash-cows, Blur challenged their fans to keep on loving them.

The Comeback single was released on 20 January 1997.

mp3 : Blur – Beetlebum

Was it a dig at Liam & Noel with their never-ending fixation on The Beatles? That’s what it sounded like first time round. It was one of those tracks that sounded OK on the radio but not one that would instantly stick in your brain. But it was popular enough to reach #1, only the second time this had happened to Blur after the afore-mentioned Country House (strangely enough it would be the last #1 single they ever had).

But it wasn’t until around three weeks later that I really appreciated Beetlebum for being a truly great song. I bought the new album, called Blur, and gave it a listen. The lead single was the opening track and as I was impatient, I hit the skip button to listen to everything else afterwards. After about eight songs I realised I owned a CD that was a bit special so I stopped there and there and went back to the beginning. And listened properly to Beetlebum. It sounded so much better played loud on the stereo than it did on the radio…the talents of Graham Coxon, Dave Rowntree and Alex James really shone through…and Damon Albarn provided a great reminder of how good a singer he was. Forget the fact that Oasis were now in a different league to Blur in terms of popularity and record sales…..this was the sound of the most important British band of their era coming good yet again.

Here’s all yer b-side of the single. Warning…there’s a reason they didn’t end up on the LP…..

mp3 : Blur – All Your Life
mp3 : Blur – A Spell (For Money)
mp3 : Blur – Woodpigeon Song
mp3 : Blur – Dancehall
mp3 : Blur – Beetlebum (Mario Caldato Jr Mix)

Enjoy

Various

BONUS POSTING : GET WELL SOON AMIGO

Those of you who dropped in the other day to When You Can’t Remember Anything will likely have been alarmed by the news that Badger is unwell. I know I was……

I did think of dropping him a ‘Get Well Soon’ card but he’ll likely be inundated with such things, and so I’ve spent the later hours of Saturday night getting the mixing decks out one more time. Hope you get the chance to download and listen my dear friend, and that this plays a small part in helping you along the road to recovery.

mp3 : Various – This One’s For Tim

Track Listing

Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
Infinity Guitars – Sleigh Bells
Whip My Hair (remix) – Willow Smith ft Tinie Tempah
Clint Eastwood – Gorillaz
Human Behaviour – Bjork
There There – Radiohead
Can’t Do Without You – Caribou
Time To Pretend – MGMT
We Are Sound – British Sea Power
Helicopter – Bloc Party
Interstate 5 – The Wedding Present
Better Things – Massive Attack ft Tracy Thorn
Pennyroyal Tea – Kristin Hersh
Post Breakup Sex – The Vaccines
Don’t Look Back Into The Sun – The Libertines

S-WC is hopeful of giving me a midweek update and I’ll share that with you as and when. Feel free to add your own messages below.

Buzzcocks

BUZZCOCKS SINGLES 77-80 (Part 7)

All the while that Ever Fallen In Love was riding high in the charts so too was Love Bites the album it had been lifted from. Like many other bands who were coming to the fore in the post-punk/new wave era of 1978 Buzzcocks were quite prolific and it was no real surprise when it was revealed that a brand new song was set to be the next 45.

The problem was that Ever Fallen In Love showed no sign of drifting out of the charts completely and so United Artists delayed the release of its follow-up all the while claiming, with the support of the band, that it was even better than the big smash.

In the event Promises was eventually released in late November 1978 but it only reached #20 in the charts as opposed to the previous single’s #12 showing. However, it is worth remembering that this particular single was in the shops in the run-up to Christmas 1978 – indeed it was in the Top 30 on Xmas Day – and it is very likely that it actually sold more copies and in effect became the band’s best-selling 45.

It is an absolute belter of a record which, if there hadn’t been an Ever Fallen In Love would probably have been held up as the band’s all-time classic.

mp3 : Buzzcocks – Promises
mp3 : Buzzcocks – Lipstick

The b-side uses the same tune as Shot By Both Sides, the debut single by Magazine – a song which had been attributed to Devoto/Shelley. But Lipstick is attributed solely to Pete Shelley thus robbing Howard of some deserved royalties.

Bum-Clocks

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG :#44 : THE BUM-CLOCKS

Best just to reproduce this review from June 2009 which led me to get my hands on today’s song:-

Leith’s Bum-Clocks are the only Robert Burns tribute band who play in the style of Iggy and the Stooges. If that sounds too high-concept for you, a glance over those involved mean they demand a listen. The Bum-Clocks – ye olde Scottish name for a beetle, making them the Scottish Beatles – are Tam Dean Burn (actor), his brother Russell (Fire Engines’ drummer) and Malcolm Ross, sometime guitarist with Josef K, Orange Juice and Aztec Camera. Could they be Leith’s first ever supergroup?

They’re really very good, either way. Ross and Burn (Russell) create raw, distorted havoc with the music, impressively echoing the Ashetons’ sound. Before a Leith Festival audience so familiar to the band he can even tell his mum to be quiet, the white-suited Burn (Tam Dean) reflects both Iggy and Rabbie in his forceful personality and vulgar wit; witness a merging of ‘Green Grow the Rashes O’ with a growled chorus line of ‘ah wannae be yir dug’, and a version of ‘Nine Inch Will Please a Lady’ that really needs no lyrical updating.

mp3 : The Bum-Clocks – Green Grow The Rashes O’

Enjoy.

Lene Lovich

THE LARGELY FORGOTTEN FOLLOW UP TO THE BIG HIT

The American-born but largely English-raised Lili Marlene Premilovich (her father was Serbian) was one of many who emerged from the art school scene to find some success in the post-punk era.

Adopting the name of Lene Lovich, she came to the fore, as a 30-year old (although she looked and sounded a lot younger) after a crazy career in which she has been a sculptor, played in funk and rock bands, acted on stage, been a go-go dancer, written lyrics for disco single that had gone Top 10 and recorded screams for later dubbing onto other actresses appearing in horror films.

Her break came via Dave Robinson, the boss of the newly formed Stiff Records, who thought she would crack the pop market with a cover of I Think We’re Alone Now which had been a 60s hit in the States for Tommy James & The Shondells.

It turned out Robinson was wrong (although a later cover by another female singer would top the charts a decade later), but the b-side to the single, an original Lovich composition called Lucky Number, was then re-recorded and issued as the follow-up single in February 1979. It proved to be a huge hit, reaching #3 in the charts. The distinctive occasionally child-like delivery and different dress sense adopted by Lene Lovich, combined with the fact that having experienced the fag-end of showbiz life she knew how to play the game, meant that she had no problems in adopting a persona that fitted perfectly with the times and so she soon became a face for the new wave era.

The radio-friendly single was also a smash in a number of other countries including Australia, New Zealand, Belgium, Holland and Ireland

The follow-up single was released in April 1979 and the fact that it reached #19 means nobody could accuse Lene Lovich of being a one-hit wonder:-

mp3 : Lene Lovich – Say When

This single however, did nothing outwith the UK, with the exception of Belgium and Holland.

Although she went on tour with a number of other acts on Stiff, and the label continued to issue singles and LPs through to 1982, there was never any real move to have her become a serious new-wave performer (as seen by the cartoon-like feel to Say When) and it didn’t take long for the novelty factor to wear off and for the next quirky female to get the media spotlight. Lene Lovich never bothered the singles charts again.

Now you have information that one day might come in useful in a pub quiz. But most likely not.

Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat, Twilight Sad

FROM RECORD STORE DAY 2013

I’m not a fan of Record Store Day. It started out with the best of intentions but before long became another way for real music fans to be ripped off. Not necessarily by any small/independent record stores or the sorts of labels who supply much of the stock to such stores, but I’m more thinking about the majors who jumped on the bandwagon and issued all sorts of product for stupid prices, and in doing so tied up pressing plants at the expense of the smaller labels.

Oh and not forgetting the greedy fucks who got into the habit of going along on RSD for the sole purpose of hoovering up bundles of rare and in demand releases to then shove them on the internet within a matter of hours at vastly inflated prices. The sort of greedy fucks who ticket tout……

Anyways, this is probably the last thing I bought on the actual RSD and it was only because at the time I had everything ever released on vinyl by The Twilight Sad and I was also intrigued to hear what Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat would bring to a Twilight Sad number.

Limited edition of 500 on 7″ vinyl on Fat Cat Records.

mp3 : Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat – Alphabet
mp3 : The Twilight Sad – (If You) Keep Me In Your Heart

One thing I’ll say. Both acts make the songs sound as if they are their own rather than covers. But both ultimately are not a patch on the originals.

Enjoy.

Merton Parkas

WE ARE THE MODS. WE ARE THE MODS. WE ARE, WE ARE, WE ARE THE MODS

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One of the things about doing this blogging lark for so many years is that I find myself in second hand stores/charity shops looking for stuff that I think might be of more interest to readers than myself. I’m not doing it anywhere as often as the old days as the prices for vinyl have, for the most part, gotten out of hand with so many folk nowadays latching on to anything that is an original pressing and in decent nick.

Today, I’m looking at a 12″ single that I paid £3 for maybe some six years or so ago. It’s now going for a minimum of double that on t’internet reflecting the fact that it didn’t sell all that well as would have been withdrawn pretty quickly after its release.

The Merton Parkas are a band I only know of thanks to it being where Mick Talbot began his career. You can see from the record sleeve that this was a band who firmly nailed their mast to the Mod movement which enjoyed a bit of a revival in the late 70s when it was linked to The Jam and the release of the film Quadrophenia.

The Merton Parkas released four singles and one LP in 1979. all on the Beggars Banquet label. Only one of them scraped into the Top 40. Within 12 months it was all over for the band, but of course Mick Talbot would, in the early to mid 80s, become one of the best-known musicians in the UK thanks to being one-half of The Style Council.

This particular 12″ was issued in 1983 – I guess as a cash-in to Talbot’s new found fame and popularity. It features all four of the singles and two of the b-sides:-

mp3 : The Merton Parkas – You Need Wheels
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – The Man With The Disguise
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – Give It To Me Now
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – Put Me In The Picture
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – Plastic Smile
mp3 : The Merton Parkas – In The Midnight Hour

Enjoy.

Gang Of Four

GIVING SOMETHING THE UNEXPECTED DANCE TREATMENT

Last December, this blog was lucky enough to host an incredible guest post from Dave Glickmann in which he imagined the staging of a Broadway musical featuring only the songs of Gang of Four. There’s since been at one other regular reader who shied away from doing a Gang of Four ICA on the basis that most of the songs would have been in Dave’s piece and besides, what he’d given us was utter genius.

I’ve also shied away from doing anything further on the band, but having dug out a 12″ single from the cupboard the other day, I thought it worth sharing as it showed that a band as principled and determined as Gang of Four were often forced to play the game.

The release of the band’s fourth studio album, Hard, was preceded by a lead-off single Is It Love in August 1983. The bosses at EMI decided that the song was worthy of an extended dance mix for use on a 12″ single. It wasn’t the first time a single had been released on the 12″ format but to the best of my knowledge (and I’m willing to be corrected) it was the first and last to be given such treatment:-

mp3 : Gang Of Four – Is It Love (Extended Dance Mix)

It’s about two minutes or so longer than the edited version of the song which was made available on the b-side (which itself was about a minute shorter than the version subsequently made available on Hard). The other track would also later appear the following month on the parent album:-

mp3 : Gang Of Four – A Man With A Good Car
mp3 : Gang Of Four – Is It Love

I distinctly remember the single getting some rotten reviews with at least one writer wondering aloud why such a brilliant band had been allowed to turn into Heaven 17….

Harsh.

Joy Division

AS OPENING TRACKS ON DEBUT LPs GO……

Joy-Division-Unknown-Pleasures-328894

……this is hard to beat.

I’ve been waiting for a guide to come and take me by the hand
Could these sensations make me feel the pleasures of a normal man?
These sensations barely interest me for another day
I’ve got the spirit, lose the feeling, take the shock away.

It’s getting faster, moving faster now, its getting out of hand
On the tenth floor, down the back stairs, its a no mans land
Lights are flashing, cars are crashing, getting frequent now
I’ve got the spirit, lose the feeling, let it out somehow.

What means to you, what means to me, and we will meet again
I’m watching you, I’m watching her, I’ll take no pity from you friends
Who is right, who can tell, and who gives a damn right now
Until the spirit new sensation takes hold, then you know
Until the spirit new sensation takes hold, then you know
Until the spirit new sensation takes hold, then you know.

I’ve got the spirit, but lose the feeling
I’ve got the spirit, but lose the feeling
Feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling, feeling.

mp3 : Joy Division – Disorder

That is all.