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

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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

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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

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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……

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……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.

Buzzcocks

BUZZCOCKS SINGLES 77-80 (Part 6)

A bona fide classic and one of the greatest singles of all time.

mp3 : Buzzcocks – Ever Fallen In Love
mp3 : Buzzcocks – Just Lust

It charted for 11 weeks all told, spending 8 weeks in the Top 40, five of which were in the Top 20, peaking at #12.

That was back in September – December 1978. Almost 40 years ago (gulp!!)

Cracking b-side too.

There’s something unjust however, when a hugely inferior cover by Fine Young Cannibals in 1987 enjoyed greater chart success by reaching #9.

 

Bronski Beat

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG :#43 : BRONSKI BEAT

I’ve featured the singles on many an occasion in the past, both here and on the old blog.

Bronski Beat were a hugely important group.  They weren’t, by definition, a Scottish act.  But frontman Jimmy Somerville is from these parts and I’m always happy to feature them here.

From the incredibly brave and groundbreaking LP The Age Of Consent:-

mp3 : Bronski Beat – No More War

Still resonates 30+ years later.

ABC

DANCE MUSIC FOR INDIE KIDS (PT 5)

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ctel (aka ACID TED)
ON 11 NOVEMBER 2008

Mrs CTel writes: This is my last posting so I thought I’d blow all (any?) credibility and go down in blaze of gold lame. Grab your hairbrush, flick your fringe, and sing along: “if you judge a book by its cover, then you judge the look by the lover. I hope one day you’ll recover. Me – I go from one extreme to another.” Pure poetry! Martin Fry may be hanging onto his former glory by his fingernails these days…but then so am I. Suppress your cynicism, dig out the glitter ball and enjoy the ride. It’s been fun.

mp3 : ABC – The Look of Love

JC adds in 2016….

the photo used above is randomly lifted from t’internet.  I’m guessing they are models posing for some sort of publicity shot.

Back in 2008, the CTels supplied a really beautiful photograph to go with the original posting.  I don’t think however, it would be appropriate to use it again all these years later .  It’s just too sad and those of you who followed ctel back then, and indeed visited my own place in the early days, will know what I’m on about.

Hope you’ve enjoyed the little trip down nostalgia lane these past few days.  I’m due back in Glasgow soon and will post some of own ill-informed rubbish again as of tomorrow.

Various

BONUS POSTING : 10

It was ten years ago today that I nervously tiptoed my way into these dangerous waters. My motivation for doing was partly to keep my creative juices flowing after finding myself at a bit of a loose end at work thanks to some unanticipated staffing changes but mainly as it was something that was of an increasing appeal.

A few months earlier, my other half had given me a USB Turntable for my birthday as I was keen to put a lot of songs that I only had on vinyl into a digital format for transferring onto a new I-pod. It was while browsing the internet looking for tips on how to best do this in terms of software programmes etc that I realised there was a small band of folk with similar musical tastes and interests who were populating small corners of cyberspace with their views and opinions, seeking out responses and debate via the comments sections to postings on their blogs. I tentatively offered some of my own views and was pleasantly surprised that nobody mocked me or called me out as a charlatan. I began to make requests for specific songs and was delighted when folk living in Canada, France, the USA and nearer to home in Scotland let me hear something again for the first time in decades.

It is really hard to imagine just how little of the old indie/new wave/ post punk music from the 70s, 80s and 90s was out there back in 2006 given the massive growth in popularity there has been this past decade. You Tube was a little over a year old and folk were to still to really harness its ability in terms of uploading old footage for all to enjoy. Spotify was still just an idea forming in someone’s head. Record companies had little interest in dealing with back catalogues unless it was a dead superstar. CD was still king with the low manufacturing costs keeping the gravy train smoothly on the tracks. All the good stuff however, seemed to be long out of print and so it fell upon this enthusiastic group of like-minded amateurs to keep certain flames burning.

I tried a few layouts, considered a few alternatives for the name of the blog and thought about giving myself a name to hide behind – The Ghost Of Troubled Joe was only ditched at the last second in favour of using my initials. Having decided that what I was going to do was in the main taking songs on 7” and 12” plastic and featuring them in what was a technically illegal digital format, I felt The Vinyl Villain was a clever and astute name for the blog. Besides, it kind of gave me a superhero alter-ego as I styled myself as ‘JC aka The Vinyl Villain.’

My first posting was on James. It was all about a long-deleted b-side called Fire Away that I thought was worth letting folk hear again. Two days later I featured Lloyd Cole with a then rare and hard-to-find remix of Butterfly, a flop single from 1992. Then I went a bit more obscure the next day with some stuff on a long-forgotten band from Edinburgh called Hey! Elastica.

Positive comments and e-mails began to trickle in and so I kept going. I never considered I’d still be doing it ten years on.

Nor did I imagine that I would make so many great friends through blogging, a fair number of whom I’ve been lucky to meet but the vast majority have been the 21st Century equivalent of pen-pals. Being a blogger has enabled me to meet some of my all-time musical heroes (and in certain cases befriend them) and indirectly led me to DJ again after many years away. It also created a situation where I would do things I could only previously daydream about – I’ve promoted gigs, I’ve been a semi-roadie, I’ve sold stuff at merchandise stalls and I’ve been briefly profiled in newspapers and magazines. I’ve been invited to come to a recording studio and be among the first to hear a brand new recording from one of my favourite bands and I’ve had my real name appear in the list of thanks on new releases. I still can’t get over that Laurence Bell of Domino Records contacted me for some thoughts and advice in advance of his label issuing the Orange Juice box set and then as thank you listing me in the credits… that will always remain beyond belief.

I’ve clearly had a whale of a time never once regretting my decision to get involved and I’ve been lucky with so much that has happened. But above all else, I am incredibly proud of the fact that I’ve been able to attract many hundreds of guest contributions over the years and in doing so have greatly expanded my knowledge and musical tastes.

Of course it’s not all been plain sailing. A few initial bumps were smoothed out by some of my oldest blogging comrades which is why it seems so apt that this week, while I’m on holiday in Toronto, that the blog is featuring a series of repeat guest offerings from ctel without whom I’d most likely quit at some point. I owe him so much and again want to publicly say a big thank you.

The Vinyl Villain was hosted by blogger.com between 29 September 2006 and 24 July 2013 when it was taken down by the host for what was alleged to be continued violations of copyright policy. They had a point but the method used in which so many millions of words were wiped without giving me a chance to do some sort of back-up was upsetting and caused a lot of grief and anger. My indignation was shared by many others and the many messages of support made me determined to bounce back quickly. I ended up doing so did so the same day, using wordpress, and re-naming it The (New) Vinyl Villain. It took a few weeks but the new place soon got up to the standards of the old place and indeed nowadays I feel it is a big improvement, thanks in the main to the quality of the guest postings.

Between the two blogs, there have been something in the region of 3,700 separate posts and what will be something in the region of 15,000 comments. That’s an awful lot of words……thankfully some of them have made some sense.

There’s not too many of the original bloggers from ten years ago still going today which is perfectly understandable given that it is very difficult to find different things to say all the time; besides, all of our personal circumstances have changed while those who were driven by the desire only to share music can point to how much easier it is to do so in 2016 compared to 2006….and much of it is legal.

In their places have come some very talented and skilled new bloggers, a small number of whom I very heartily recommend with a listing to the right hand side of my own place. Sometimes I find it difficult to read what these folk are writing, partly because so many of them do it in a way that makes me think they should be getting paid for it, but also because I sometimes read their word and realise that my own emerging thoughts for a future post just been blown out the water!!

I know that I won’t be doing this forever. To be honest, five years ago I didn’t imagine seeing out another half-decade, so I’ll make no predictions about what the future holds. But as long as I wake up of a morning and see that someone out there is getting a degree of enjoyment out of what appears here, and as long as I’m able to crochet a few clichés together in a way that makes some sort of sense, well you can bet that some sort of tune and some sort of opinion or information will appear on a daily basis.

For now, here’s some tunes:-

mp3 : Kingmaker – 10 Years Asleep
mp3 : Wild Billy Childish & The Musicians Of The British Empire – Birthday Boy
mp3 : James – Fire Away (12″ vinyl)
mp3 : Lloyd Cole – Butterfly (the Planet Ann Charlotte Mix)
mp3 : The Fall – Lost In Music

Enjoy.

Orb

DANCE MUSIC FOR INDIE KIDS (PT 4)

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ctel (aka ACID TED)
ON 11 NOVEMBER 2008

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Bit of a strange one this, Mrs CTel chooses ambient godfathers The Orb. But before anyone worries about 40 minutes of whale noise, this is an untypically upbeat Orb track.

The Orb is Alex Paterson with various collaborators over the years. Best known for playing chess on Top Of The Pops (for 40 minute single “Blue Room”), this ex-Killing Joke roadie has done it all. The Orb virtually invented the electronic genre known as ambient house, resurrecting slower, more soulful rhythms and providing a soundtrack for early-morning ravers once the clubs had closed their doors. Alex’s formula was quite simple: he slowed down the rhythms of classic Chicago house and added synth work and effects inspired by ’70s ambient pioneers Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream.

Mrs CTel has chosen 1997 single Toxygene. This was originally commissioned as a remix of Jean Michel Jarre‘s “Oxygene 8”. However, The Orb “obliterated it” and reassembled only a few fragments for their remix, much to the chagrin of Jarre, who reportedly “threw a fit and refused to release it”. The Orb released the track themselves under the name “Toxygene”, which further irritated Jarre, to whom Paterson retorted “The French are always five years behind us, anyway.”. Meanwhile, Mrs CTel says:

This one will keep your pedals going round even cycling straight into a gale with your teeth clenched and your little legs on fire (aaah the memories). No words even to distract you, just a hypnotic relentless beat that hooks you and a skilfully layered melody to keep you entranced all the way through. Simple and very effective. Give it a try even if you’ve never owned a bike – it can be enjoyed just as much in more civilised conditions.

mp3: The Orb – Toxygene (Radio Edit)

mp3 : The Orb – Toxygene (Kris Needs Up For A Fortnight Mix)*

*for those who want it dancier
Colourbox

DANCE MUSIC FOR INDIE KIDS (PT 3)

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ctel (aka ACID TED)
ON 10 NOVEMBER 2008

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Today Mrs CTel discusses sport and dance for indie kids, through the medium of Colourbox.

Colourbox was one of the legendary 4AD label’s earliest and most under-recognized acts. It was among the first artists outside hip-hop to rely heavily on sampling techniques; ultimately, their arty blue-eyed soul reached its commercial and creative peak through their work with AR Kane on M/A/R/R/S‘ seminal “Pump Up the Volume” project, a reflection of the group’s long-standing interest in the burgeoning underground dance music scene of the 1980s. Colourbox was primarily the work of London-based brothers Martyn and Steven Young. In 1986 they released “The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme” (relating to the World Cup in Mexico in 86).

Mrs CTel says:

This is to do with Football. Music and sport in an official or unofficial capacity shouldn’t mix. It’s not cool – even New Order only just scraped a place on the line dividing kitsch from credibility. But this track’s massive saving grace it that except for the title (whisper it if you must) it doesn’t have ANY reference to the F word. Blissfully free of lyrics, it delivers a wonderful performance quite out sync with England’s woeful international efforts, except perhaps in its own lack of chart success. But hey, that IS cool in music terms. It starts off hard and keeps up a great momentum all the way through. Trust me on this one.

mp3 : Colourbox – The Official Colourbox World Cup Theme 7″ Mix

Faithless

DANCE MUSIC FOR INDIE KIDS (PT 2)

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ctel (aka ACID TED)
ON 9 NOVEMBER 2008

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Second in the series where Mrs CTel explains which dance tracks indie kids should go for. Today, handbags at the ready for Faithless.

The three principal members of Faithless are: Maxwell Frazer AKA Maxi Jazz (Conscious Rap) Ayalah Bentovim AKA Sister Bliss (Music) Roland Armstrong AKA Rollo (Producer, Music). Many of the songs are sung by Pauline Taylor.

Jamie Catto was originally part of the group but left after the release of the second album “Sunday 8PM”.

Zoë Johnston joined for the album “Outrospective”.

Their first album, 1996’s “Reverence”, was an underground sensation but did not quite break the mainstream. 1998’s “Sunday 8PM” changed all of that, the single “God Is a DJ” became a big club anthem while the album enjoyed bigger sales than anything they had previously released. Critics may have been harsh, but the group kept moving forward with both members also pursuing solo careers on the side.

Mrs CTel’s choice is “God is a DJ”:

Faithless are an annoying lot when it comes to amazing tracks that build up frustratingly slowly and then burst into a glorious combination of rhythm and melody. That’s why they’re so fabulous live – they get straight to the good bit and then play expertly around with the sound. Try to access inner peace as the introduction signals great things to come but doesn’t deliver until full hair-tearing minutes later. It is well worth it but do get a version where the full dance part doesn’t disappear moments after its just got into its stride. Otherwise inner dance-floor karma will turn into outer world irritability.

mp3 : Faithless – God Is A DJ (Serious Danger Mix)

mp3 : Faithless – God Is A DJ (Astral Projection Mix)

Renegade Soundwave

DANCE MUSIC FOR INDIE KIDS (PT 1)

ORIGINALLY POSTED BY ctel (aka ACID TED)

ON 8 NOVEMBER 2008

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I was talking to Mrs CTel the other night after she’d been grumbling about some clattery techno track I was playing. She’s an indie kid at heart. You must like some of it, I said. More in hope than anything. There are a couple, she admitted. You ought to write about them, I suggested. And then the august JC’s computer got sick. So here we are. Please welcome Mrs CTel to the TVV team.

Her first selection is Renegade Soundwave. Formed in London during the late ’80s, Renegade Soundwave applied the punk and industrial ethic to both dub and dancefloor electronica. The trio of Gary Asquith, Danny Briottet and Carl Bonnie debuted with the 1987 single “Kray Twins”. The group’s only hit, “Probably a Robbery”, made the British Top 40 early in 1990, but Bonnie left later that year for a solo career. Asquith and Briottet spent several years in isolation before emerging in 1994 with the “Renegade Soundwave” single and the album How You Doin?. The compilation RSW 87-95 emerged in 1996. But then it all went quiet again. As of 2007, Danny Briottet is producing and recording/remixing under the name of Red Star and Gary Asquith is in a band called Lavender Pill Mob with Kevin Mooney, formerly of Adam & The Ants along with Electro ambient artist Lee Simeone.

Mrs Ctel selects the Renegade Soundwave single as her dance music for indie kids track:

This is an excellent track. It has a driving beat, melodic tune and attitude. It sounds relatively slow these days but is still irresistibly confident. Not sure where they’re from – they say “the Cockney b*stards cannot rhyme” [on “Howyoudoin?”], so I’m guessing not London.. Takes you straight to getting-ready-to-go-clubbing or hosting your own memorable-if-hazy-about-the-details night of partying. It isn’t trying to save the world or moan on about lost love, only “the guitar we just couldn’t tune”. Enjoy problems Renegade Soundwave style – hear it on headphones and get the stereo effect of depth and swirling sound and keep listening till your spine tingles.

mp3 : Renegade Soundwave – Renegade Soundwave 7″ Mix

mp3 : Renegade Soundwave – Howyoudoin?

mp3 : Renegade Soundwave – Renegade Soundwave Whistling Guitar Mix

JC adds in 2016……………

This was ctel and Mrs ctel stepping in when, over a weekend, my PC crashed and left me powerless to post.  The old blog was just over a year old and was picking up a bit of momentum in terms of numbers of visitors and folk beginning to leave behind comments and initiate some debate.

Mrs ctel will be here all week…………..

 

Buzzcocks

BUZZCOCKS SINGLES 77-80 (Part 5)

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I was really sure that Love You More was a much bigger hit than #34. I think it’s the fact that it hung around in the Top 50 for a while that leads to that conclusion but its chart run was 41,34,35,35,60,53 and so yup, mid-30s it was.

What it did do was get the band their first all-important appearance on Top of The Pops in July 1978 thus instantly making their name and sound recognisable to millions more people overnight. Which sort of set them up for the rest of the year. In the meantime, enjoy the magic of the 1min 45 second pop single and its rather spendid b-side:-

mp3 : Buzzcocks – Love You More
mp3 : Buzzcocks – Noise Annoys

Till next time.

Broken Records

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #42 : BROKEN RECORDS

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Ever since around 2007, there’s been an increasing move in Scottish music towards music that blends indie with traditional folk. There’s a fair few bands out there who churn it to varying degrees of quality, looking for those magic moments that capture the imagination of the wider public. One of the things about these bands are that they tend to capture a certain kind of magic on stage – it’s partly to do with the racket they make getting a response from the audience (there’s usually at least six and up to a dozen members in your typical indie-folk band) and partly to do with some of the tunes tending to hit certain emotional buttons (happy/sad alike) when you’re pissed at a show.

The problem is however, it rarely translates all that well to the recording studio, no matter how talented the musicians or how much of a genius is occupying the producer’s chair.

Broken Records started out as a three-piece in Edinburgh in 2007 but soon had expanded to seven members. They gigged relentlessly, working up a reputation as a more than decent live act. They released a number of low-key singles on small labels before inking a deal with 4AD in 2009.

There’s been two albums in the intervening period which, to my ears, just haven’t captured the spirit and energy long associated with them on a hot and sweaty stage. But I do have the debut LP on the shelf and this is from it:-

mp3 : Broken Records – If The News Makes You Sad, Then Don’t Watch It

It’s a re-working of their very first single.

Enjoy.

NYC, Various

EVERYONE’S YOUR FRIEND IN NEW YORK CITY (2)

A GUEST POSTING FROM ECHORICH &

JONNY THE FRIENDLY LAWYER

nyc-image

I’m A Stranger Here Myself

JTFL writes…………

Echorich kicked off this series with a stellar set aptly titled “Coming of Age in NYC.” It was a great survey of the music banging out of the downtown scene that inspired us, performed by our local heroes from the city. This time out it’s a collection of songs about NYC by artists from much farther afield. Natives are proud of the city and we love how people from other places are so taken with it, so impressed by it, and how they see it in so many different ways. This set presents a few of our favorite alien perspectives.

1. Statue of Liberty – XTC

JTFL: TVV readers may remember my fondness for Swindon’s finest (see ICAs 26 and 79). Here the boys serve up a bouncy post-punk tribute to Lady Liberty, who’s been welcoming foreigners to the Big Apple since 1886 from her star-shaped plinth in the harbor. This was the early incarnation of the band, and maybe their first great single. Energy, pace, melody and something clever to say — everything you need to get around town.

ER: I approached XTC from the middle with Drums And Wires and backwards educated myself quickly. White Music fit right in with the emerging New Pop music coming from the likes of Costello, Squeeze, and dare I say even The Police. I remember hearing Statue Of Liberty occasionally on WNYU College Radio even into the early 80’s. I always thought that the Statue Andy is singing about might just be a hooker, or maybe just some latent teenage sexual angst set to music.

2. New Amsterdam – Elvis Costello

JTFL: “A bewildered lad, alone in New York, except for his rhyming dictionary,” sez Elvis’s liner notes. I like the trademark wordplay but I especially love the imagery of an exiled soul, alone with his thoughts down by the docks surrounding the island. People forget that Manhattan is only two miles wide; you’re almost always in view of the East River or the Hudson on the west side. Couldn’t tell you if the docks look like Liverpool or not. One of the few songs on an EC & the Attractions LP on which Elvis played all the instruments himself.

ER: New Amsterdam is one of my all time favorite Costello track and Get Happy! is far and away my favorite EC+A album. Listened to as a New Yorker, New Amsterdam sounded like another world altogether. Alienation can come in many forms – physical and emotional.

3. You Said Something – PJ Harvey

JTFL: This songs captures EXACTLY the vibe of the city at night. There’s not a lot of open space on the ground so it’s common to find yourself up on a roof — my years there were filled with rooftop parties, conversations, fights, trysts and general reflecting. PJ starts out in Brooklyn at 1 in the morning (not sure where she can “see five bridges” — at most she’d be able to see the Brooklyn, Manhattan, Williamsburg and maybe the Queensborough bridges). She gets wistful about her far off homeland, wonders how she arrived in this remarkable place, and drifts with a lover up to the eighth floor of an apartment across the river. Along the way she discovers something important. Perambulant assignations, going where the city will take her. Beautiful.

ER: I come from what are derided by Manhattanites as one of the outer boroughs – Queens in my case. If you lived, worked and played in Manhattan you took a very possessive stance on being a true New Yorker, but the real beauty of New York is to see Manhattan from across the East River in either Queens or Brooklyn. It’s like having a front row seat at an amazing panoramic film. Just watching the lights come on in Manhattan at night you get a sense of the buzz that’s beginning to come from the streets and out of the bars and clubs and restaurants. But if you take the time to cross the East River to Brooklyn or Queens or the Harlem River to Da Bronx, you will find that same twi-night hum that builds into a sort of roar. This is why Doo Wop comes from the streets of Da Bronx and Brooklyn, why Queens gave birth to a Latin Music scene that has been vibrant and colorful for decades and kids could go from practicing 3 chord guitar songs in garages to global recognition via small, dirty Lower East Side Clubs.

4. Fairytale of New York – The Pogues (with Kirsty MacColl)

JTFL: NYC has a deep Irish heritage. St. Patrick’s Day is always a good time, whether you stick around for the parade or not. There used to be a Blarney Stone on every second corner where they sold little glasses of Rheingold for fifty cents (and sometimes corned beef and cabbage if anyone could be bothered to clean the steam table). I knew a guy that tended bar in one of these Irish dives, gathering material for his hopeful career as a writer. I came in one day and asked if he got anything good. He told me he had just now broken up a fight between Bruce and Robert, two decrepit regulars who’d stepped straight out of a James Joyce story. Turns out the pair came to blows over what day of the week it was. “And they were both wrong,” said my friend the bartender. The Pogues and the late Ms. MacColl make the city their own on this classic.

ER: There is no Christmas without Fairytale of New York. While I would never consider myself a big Pogues fan, I am a huge Kirsty MacColl fan and this was just a pairing made in heaven. There will never be another like her and Kirsty is the only one who could put Shane McGowan in his place. Part of growing up in NYC was finding your way to your first bar – for points it was all about how young you could claim to have been when you had your first drink in a bar to be precise – 15 here, by the way… More often than not either the hardest or easiest place to get that first, illicit drink was going to be a neighborhood Irish bar (or “pub” if the place REALLY traded on the Celtic connection.) My first Irish bar was Mullaney’s Bar in Queens. I can remember that the jukebox in that place had every Irish drinking song you could imagine, a few stray Folk songs, Sinatra and Elvis. It was more curiosity piece than an active jukebox. There always seemed to be a Mets game on or Hockey on the the TV.

5. New York Morning – Elbow

JTFL: I’d forgotten all about Elbow, truth be told, until a recent guest post by S-WC found its way onto this blog. It led me to catch up on the band which in turn led to the discovery of this gem. And just like PJ nailed the city at night, Elbow captures the feeling of waking up in the big city, full of promise and possibility: “Oh my God New York can talk/Somewhere in all that talk is all the answers/Everybody owns the great ideas/And it feels like there’s a big one round the corner”.

ER: I can’t profess to be much of an Elbow fan. They seem to wear their Peter Gabriel influence on their sleeve most of the time. New York Morning does carry some really important truths in it. New York is a land of dreams achieved and missed, a place where everyone has a great idea and the opportunity to make it real. But what makes NYC function are the men and women toiling to keep it running.

6. Chelsea Hotel – Lloyd Cole

JTFL: REM recorded ‘First We Take Manhattan’ for the Leonard Cohen tribute album “I’m Your Fan”. But this song from the same LP gets the nod because of its references to the Chelsea, an inimitable city landmark. Home to writers (Dylan Thomas, Burroughs, Sartre), artists (Oldenberg, Mapplethorpe, de Kooning), and countless musicians (Dylan, Lynott, Nico etc). Sid killed Nancy in Room 100. Warhol films were shot there. The Chelsea is on 23rd between 7th and 8th Avenues; I lived on 23rd between 9th and 10th for six years, so I passed it on a daily basis. My sister lived there for a couple of months after some itinerant globetrotting. The lobby was filled with masterpieces by long time resident Larry Rivers and many others who often had to pay their rent with art when they had no cash. The friendly owner, Stanley, never booted anyone out so it was great place to meet someone downtown, or just kick back on a comfy couch surrounded by priceless treasures. Nice version of a NYC song written by a Canadian and performed by a Brit.

ER: Mic drop Jonny – with just a bit of VU feedback…

7. New York City – Cub

JTFL: New York can be a heavy place, what with all the history and money and violence and drugs and Socioeconomic Inequities and everything. But it’s also FUN, immensely FUN, and if you can’t have a good time in New York you’re in a very sorry state. This super-light pop song by Vancouver trio Cub dances around town without a care in the world. It’s all about how much fun it is to come to the city to see the sights and just hang out. (It’s also where this series got its name.) There’s an adorable video that accompanies this song, too. I love the tight girly harmonies. When the band sings “everything looks beautiful when you’re young and pretty” I think about my daughter, already a native after just a month. She sends me texts and photos of what she and her friends are getting up to in the city. I always text back, “have fun, sunshine” but I’m always thinking “I wish I were you.”

ER: Having just gotten back from a short trip to NYC to see The Bunnymen slay the crowd, I can tell you that it is absolutely impossible to get the City out of this New Yorker. Getting out of Laguardia Airport on a sunny, humid and hot Sunday afternoon, I just breathed a huge sigh and smiled all the way to the bus that would take me to the subway into Manhattan. Once in the city, it was like a kid being let into a candy store before all the others. I just kept looking up at the tops of buildings and across the avenues filled with people rushing in that certain New Yorker way from point A to point B. I just jumped into step with the crowd and was on my way.

8. Red Angel Dragnet – The Clash

JTFL: Many Clash fans follow this blog and I bet a few are wondering why this tune and not ‘Gates of the West’? I’ll tell you why: New York doesn’t have a south side. Chicago does; not NYC. I always found Mick Jones singing about “Southside Sue” really pretentious. That was 1978. By the time the band were recording Combat Rock at the end of 1981, they were living at the Iroquois Hotel, two blocks off Times Square. They were deep into the NY scene, having triumphed during their two-week residence at Bonds the previous summer. The “red angels” in the song are The Guardian Angels, a citizens watch group formed in 1979 to help keep the city safe. Strummer was now sporting a mohawk, just like vigilante Travis Bickle in ‘Taxi Driver’, whose lines are repeated in the song by the band’s MC, Kosmo Vinyl. But the Clash weren’t singing about keeping the streets safe from criminals; the song recounts the shooting of one of the Guardian Angels by a Newark police officer. Over here in the states there’s been an epidemic of cops shooting unarmed civilians, usually people of color. Seems like it happens every other day and underlies the increasingly prominent Black Lives Matter movement. Goes to show how on point The Clash were 35 years ago.

ER: Ok, nothing to add here except that this is one of two songs I heard the band listening back to at Electric Lady Studios on a winter afternoon when Kosmo invited a few of us in from the cold. I told Paul Simonon one night in 82 walking from NBC studios after their appearance on Saturday Night Live that I love his bass on this song and he said “one take mate!” Don Letts chimed in walking up behind us “Tell another one Paul…” Magic.

9. New York, New York – Ryan Adams

JTFL: I don’t know if folks overseas are familiar with Ryan Adams. Over here people seem to either love him or hate him. I don’t have an opinion one way or the other but I do love this song. And Mr. Adams’ love for NYC seems genuine. The dude gets around, covering ground from the summer in Alphabet City to the winter on the upper west side. Plus he pronounces “Houston” correctly, which deserves some props.

ER: Ryan Adams was a breath of fresh air at the turn of the Millennium. Sure, he has a sort of Gram Parsons Country/Rock background, but he fell headfirst into New York CIty once he arrived. Along with Jesse Malins he has kept alive a certain poet/folk/rock brand that seems to manage to thrive in NYC.

10. What New York Used To Be – The Kills

JTFL: New York changes really rapidly and it’s easy to get nostalgic about how things were. CBGB’s is now a John Varvatos store. The Meat Packing bays off 7th Avenue, where you’d see cleaver-wielding butchers in white smocks pushing bloody racks of steers, was replaced by an Apple Store and Stella McCartney and Alexander McQueen boutiques. Chinatown swarmed across Delancey and shrunk Little Italy. You can even walk down Avenue D after dark! There’s a great website called evgrieve.com where people write in to reminisce and lament that the east village was totally usurped by yuppies. The Kills have no patience for that whining — they just want to get on with it. Either that or get run over because, love it or loathe it, NYC’s still FAST.

ER: I have to agree, New York thrives on its ability to create a kind of personal nostalgia for people, but the city is a living breathing organism that seems to shed its skin like a reptile every decade or so. But part of the excitement about NYC is anticipating what comes next.

Bonus Track: New York Skiffle – Half Man Half Biscuit

JTFL: The Sex Pistols took it to the Dolls in their song “New York”, and Johnny Thunders returned the insult with his track “London Boys”. But HMHB spoof both scenes on this tune. Smart New Yorkers, like smart folks everywhere, know not to take themselves too seriously. For those of us that sometimes forget, this song’s a friendly reminder to cut the crap.

ER: Every time I’ve heard this track I think, damn, John Lennon would have covered that, he would have had to.

Postscript from JTFL:-

The quintessential NYC song by any foreigner is “Shattered” by the Rolling Stones. It’s also got the best lyric: “Go ahead — Bite the Big Apple!” It’s not included here because Echorich and I resolved to limit our posts to music that fits within the parameters of this blog. Plenty of other places on the ‘net to listen to classic rock and read about major label bands. I also sometimes get the sense that liking the Stones may be a bit uncool. But I’m 53 and by definition uncool, so I don’t give a crap what’s cool or not. If I had to pick a single song, by anyone, that sounds like NYC, it would be this one.

JC adds……

Postings like these that make me realise just how lucky I am that there are talented people willing to make the time and expend the energy on being part of this little corner of the internet.  So many of the guest postings are infinitely superior to what you’ll pay good money for out in magazine-world.

Delighted too, that I’m able to publish on a day when the Blue Jays take on those damn Yankees in a vital end-of season series over the next four days….made extra special by the fact that I’m going to be in the stadium watching it all unfold.

Oh, and I couldn’t let JTFL’s postscript just hang there:-

mp3 : Rolling Stones – Shattered

Enjoy.

 

Various

HOLIDAY HYMNS

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So at long last, I’m just about set to fly over to Toronto for a short break. Flight leaves tomorrow morning.

The idea came up about five or six weeks ago when the Blue Jays were top of their division and set to have a shot at winning the World Series for the first time since 1993. Only problem is that since I booked the flights the team has gone into near freefall and are barely clinging on for a one-game stab at making it into the playoffs where they will no doubt come a cropper on current form. But still, it’ll be worth it even if the games aren’t going to be as enjoyable or critical as I’d hoped as being in a packed Rogers Centre on a baseball night is one of the greatest of sporting expereiences. And besides, beyond the baseball I’m going to spend time with a lot of very dear friends.

Here’s the last of the 1-hour mixes that I’ve put together for the flight. The rest have gone up as bonus postings but this one is the main and indeed only attraction on the blog today

mp3 : Various – Let’s Play Ball

Smash Hits – Kid Canaveral
The Life of Riley – Lightning Seeds
Waiting For The Winter – The Popguns
Young Adult Friction – The Pains of Being Pure at Heart
Foxheads – The Close Lobsters
Permanent Past Tense – Butcher Boy
Our Lips Are Sealed  – Fun Boy Three
It Happens – Primal Scream
When All’s Well – Evertything But The Girl
Jeane – The Smiths
Definitive Gaze – Magazine
Higher Grounds – Cats On Fire
Hitten – Those Dancing Days
C.R.E.E.P. – The Fall
The House Jack Kerouac Built – The Go-Betweens
Falling and Laughing – Orange Juice
Freakscene – Dinosaur Jr.
Dance Me In – Sons & Daughters
Deceptacon – Le Tigre

Inspired in the main by nights spent dancing at Little League in Glasgow with many of the above songs being aired regularly at these now six-monthly nights.

Tomorrow’s posting and those for the weekend are in place and then come Monday there will be a week of repeat postings dug up from the old blog courtesy of ctel/Acid Ted.

Oh and if you can, please drop in next Thursday for a scheduled bonus posting of some significance.

See you all soon.  Let’s Go Blue Jays.

 

Only Ones

EVEN IF THEY ARE REMEMBERED FOR ONLY ONE SONG….

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The Only Ones, consisting of Peter Perrett (vocals, guitar), John Perry (lead guitar, keyboards), Mike Kellie (drums) and Alan Mair (bass) released their debut single in June 1977. They disbanded in March 1981 after a career that had seen six singles (seven if you count that one was given a re-release) and three albums. None of the singles charted while the first two albums reached #56 and #42 respectively in May 78 and March 79.

It wouldn’t normally be the sort of stats that get you noticed far less fondly remembered. Except for the fact that this was one of the singles:-

mp3 : The Only Ones – Another Girl, Another Planet

It had passed me by on its first release in April 78 and again in August 78 when CBS Records, convinced of its quality, tried again. I wouldn’t have heard it until 1981/82 when I began frequenting the Strathclyde University Students Union where the song was a staple of the alternative downstairs disco, sometimes airing two or even three times a night s each of the DJs doing a stint would give it a spin. Once heard, never forgotten and for most folk it was instant love. By now the record had been long deleted so I never got my hands on a physical copy of it, but in due course a few years later it would be included on a new wave type compilation and so at last I could play something other than the version I had on hissy cassette tape.

It’s an astonishingly good piece of music. It’s damn near the most perfect ever guitar-pop song, in terms of the tune, the playing, the doom-laden verses and the ridiculously catchy sing-a-long chorus. Don’t even bother trying to argue otherwise as you’re wrong.

I’ve dug out, from other sources and sadly not the original vinyl, the b-sides to the two releases of the single:-

mp3 : The Only Ones – Special View
mp3 : The Only Ones – As My Wife Says

Enjoy.

R.E.M.

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #91 : R.E.M.

IT’S CRAZY WHAT YOU COULD’VE HAD

rem

I’ve not done all that many ICAs in recent times, preferring to leave such posts to guest contributors. Those of you who have taken the time to submit an ICA will know just how time-consuming an exercise it is, not just in getting your thoughts down on paper but having the pleasure of listening again to the back catalogue of a singer or band in the effort to find that perfect running order knowing fine well you’ll probably change your mind within a few minutes of hitting the send button.

I have the same dilemma and find that if I get myself immersed in an ICA I struggle to come up with the required daily postings to keep this place ticking over, but given that next week will see a series of guest postings while I’m off enjoying myself in Toronto I have no excuses but to have another go. But I’ll make it easy for myself by going for R.E.M.

Actually, thanks to a slight sleight of hand I have made it much easier than it should be. Those of you who recall The Fall ICA from August 2015 will know that I restricted myself to selecting only from singles released in the UK. Today, I’m restricting myself to album tracks that weren’t released in the UK as a 45…..and they had to come from an album on which Bill Berry featured………which in turn meant 10 studio LPs released between 1983 and 1986……….which led me to go with one from each of them (with one exception)

Believe me, without these bye-laws for this ICA I’d still have been writing the piece come this time next year. So here is what I’ve called It’s Crazy What You Could Have Had.

Side A

1. Begin The Begin (from Lifes Rich Pageant, 1986)

This ICA opens with the opening track from the band’s fourth studio LP which, looking back, can be seen as taking the first serious steps away from being a cult indie/college band towards world domination within five years. The album tackled a range of political and ecological issues and its release seemed to coincide with Michael Stipe finally getting comfortable with the idea of the front man being seen by so many, fans and media alike, as the spokesperson albeit he was often singing lyrics penned by one of the other members – such was the joy of having all compositions attributed to Berry-Buck-Mills-Stipe.

Begin The Begin has always been a band favourite, being played extensively at gigs and long after most of the other songs from the IRS years had been dropped to accommodate the ones the arena and stadium audiences had paid good money to hear – y’know, the 19 singles lifted from the first four albums from the 90s which have come to define the band in the eyes and to the ears of so many. Not that there’s anything wrong with that – and indeed if I hadn’t imposed bye-laws for the ICA many of those 19 singles (and indeed a number of the earlier 45s) would have made the cut. But I would still, no matter what, have opened up the ICA with what Stipe has described as an act of ‘personal, political activism’. It was the right note to strike at exactly the right time in history.

2. Driver 8 (from Fables Of The Reconstruction, 1985)

One of the hardest things in pulling together any ICA is getting the best possible running order. I know some contributors have dodged this simply by putting it together in chronological order which, after all, is what many record labels do when compiling a ‘Best of’ or ‘Greatest Hits’ effort. By deciding not to feature any of the singles – most of which would fall into the upbeat and catchy categories – this particular ICA is not the most commercial release that would ever be put together. But in my mind, it’s always important to start things off in a way that appeals most to a casual listener to draw them into listening to the rest of the record. It’s a common approach as can be evidenced by so many albums opening with singles as the first two tracks on Side A.

Driver 8 is a cracking example of very early listenable and danceable R.E.M. and its inclusion here is only possible as it wasn’t released as a single in the UK.

3. New Test Leper (live acoustic version) (from New Adventures In Hi-Fi, 1996)

New Adventures In Hi-Fi is a wild beast of an album.  It’s way longer than anything else the band had done before or indeed have released since. It was as if it had been recorded specifically to cater for a CD release, coming in at just under the maximum length permissible under that format. It has its flaws, as indeed would just about any 14-song LP no matter who released it, and yet it is probably my favourite album by the band. Maybe that’s down to it marking the end of an era with Berry moving on at its conclusion, and yes, I too found it hard to reconcile that it all happened 20 years ago. But by any account it is incredibly bold and ambitious LP in its aims, including of course the fact it was recorded in many parts during soundchecks for the arena gigs in the world tour to support the release of Monster.

New Test Leper is a sad and haunting song with its meaning open to various interpretations. Is it told by someone with an obvious physical deformity or someone whose lifestyle has led to be a mental breakdown or debilitating illness? I’ve always taken it as being from the viewpoint of someone with AIDS trying their best to explain to an unsympathetic and non-listening world that their illness neither makes them a bad person nor a threat to anyone.

The version included here is one of the b-sides to Bittersweet Me; it demonstrates just how good they were at picking up their instruments and belting out a tune (although belting isn’t quite what they do in this instance)

4. World Leader Pretend (from Green, 1988)

For highly personal reasons, this is up there among my all-time favourite songs by anyone, far less by R.E.M.

Let’s just say that it gave me inner strength and self-belief at a time when I was going through a lot of turmoil, not really sure if I had the ability to break out of a relationship in which I found myself trapped. There’s also an amazing live performance captured on Tourfilm in which the song’s opening is amended to namecheck a song by Gang of Four. (see bonus footage below)

5. Country Feedback (from Out Of Time, 1991)

The LP which spent 109 weeks on American album charts, including two separate spells at #1 spot; it also was part of the UK album charts for 183 weeks (that’s nearly 3 ½ years FFS!!) with just a single week at #1.

It has many outstanding tracks including this, named simply to describe its music – country rock (with pedal-steel guitar) and some feedback thrown in. It’s a rambling, slighty insane lyric which has since been claimed as coming from a single-take in the studio in which Stipe had only some prompt words written down on a piece of paper with much of it being improvised. If this is the case, and I have no reason to believe otherwise, it is simply as extraordinary a song as has ever been written and recorded.

Side B

1. Pretty Persuasion (from Reckoning, 1984)

One of the band’s earliest songs and to many involved from the outset a bit of a surprise omission from their debut album, albeit it was soon earmarked for its follow-up. Another of the upbeat numbers that made their sound so attractive to the college radio networks which played such a major part in breaking the band. This could have easily been a single and indeed there’s every likelihood that if either of So, Central Rain or (Don’t Go Back To) Rockville had somehow charted then IRS would have rush-released this as a cash-in. It’s still astonishing to realise that the two singles were flops but then again, if they had propelled the band into the spotlight it would have been well before they were truly ready and would in all likelihood led to them breaking up before they realised their full potential.

2. Disturbance At The Heron House (from Document, 1987)

The LP in which the world began to really pay attention thanks to it spawning a Top 10 single (and the most misunderstood wedding song of all time!!)

It’s an album in which the singles are by far the strongest and most enduring songs, albeit they are a long way removed from the R.E.M. that early fans raved about and obsessed over.

Here’s a song that kind of harks back to the older material in sound and complexity but which opens with what seems to be a blatant rip-off of Born In The USA. On the surface, it sounds like another agitprop number expressing concern about the politics and politicians dominating the American landscape at the time. But there’s another really intriguing explanation that I came across on the internet a while back:-

“According to (Stipe) it was a song about how Athens was being promoted as the new “it” scene for music due to the popularity of themselves and other bands such as the B-52’s coming in to fashion. This of course led to a lot of musicians and bands, or “grunts and hirelings” as the song labels them, coming to Athens to try and make it big and claiming it as their own. Much like Seattle in the early 90’s.

These “followers of chaos out of control” were obviously distasteful to the real and authentic Athenian musicians who had worked hard to build their careers only to have these “monkeys” imitating (aping) their style and pretending to be from Athens. Apparently a music magazine was doing a cover story on the Athens scene and as a cover shot for the issue there was a picture of all these so-called Athens bands gathered at a local monument “they’re meeting at the monument” which seemingly did not include any of the authentic Athens bands at the time. This, of course, sickened and infuriated Michael and company and so they wrote this bitterly scathing song to describe the event.

When given this context it is indeed one of the most straight forward songs he has written and the line “when feeding time has come and gone, they’ll lose their hearts and head for home” is one of the most delicious F.U.’s that has ever been delivered in a song.”

Make of that what you will………………

3. First We Take Manhattan (b-side to Drive, from Automatic For The People, 1992)

The LP that spawned six singles and sold 18 million copies worldwide. The LP packed with strings-laden or piano-led ballads. The LP with a song that later spawned a Hollywood movie starring one of the most famous American comedy actors to emerge in the late 20th century.

Let’s be frank…..there’s not really all that much left when you exclude the singles; the remaining tracks do include ballads and political rants but they just aren’t in the A-list of R.E.M. songs. Nor did I feel they fitted in well at any point of this ICA. So I’ve gone for this cover version – originally recorded for the tribute album I’m Your Fan – and then included as a b-side to the lead single off Automatic For The People. The band have always been great at acknowledging their heroes and influences with cover versions, many of which sadly often appear a bit lacklustre and half-hearted….almost as if the band don’t consider they can bring anything new or better to the song. But that’s not the case in this rockist take on a Leonard Cohen number….

4. Let Me In (from Monster, 1994)

The LP that caught everyone out. As far removed from the smash-hit Automatic as could be imagined and chock-full of loud and often distorted guitars with lyrics that veer from angry to bemused to creepy to scary to scared. It’s an album that was dismissed by many at the time and yet it is one that in many places has stood the test of time and still maintains the ability to surprise all these years later.

Let Me In is Stipe’s heartfelt and ultimately futile plea to his good friend Kurt Cobain with the lyric based on one of their final phone calls before the Nirvana frontman committed suicide.

5. Perfect Circle (from Murmur, 1983)

A song that so perfectly captures so much of what made R.E.M. so special in so many different ways. Always had this down as being the one to close any ICA, even one which included the singles.

So there you have it. My first ICA in a long while and one that putting together could have been an impossible task without me bringing a few one-off rules into place.

The links can be downloaded individually. I’ve also made the two sides of the ICA available.

Side A

Side B

Enjoy.

Oh and I nearly forgot……