THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

NOPE……I STILL DON’T RATE IT HIGHLY

My recent efforts to come up with the perfect imaginary album for Aztec Camera caused a few folk to comment about the lack of any tracks from the 1984 LP Knife with a number suggesting that it is very much an underrated record. I thought I’d offer up a personal perspective if that’s OK with you guys and gals….

The biggest and most obvious issue facing Knife is that it isn’t High Land Hard Rain MkII. There are always great expectations of any singer or band whose debut LP has taken the world by storm and the pressures more often than not lead to ‘difficult second album syndrome’. Nobody however, anticipated this being an issue for Aztec Camera given just how bloody brilliant the songs had been thus far from the Postcard debuts through to the b-sides of the singles lifted from HLHR. Plus there was the fact that Malcolm Ross who was already a legend in Scottish music circles thanks to his involvement with Josef K and Orange Juice – was now part of the band; it was the very thought of him and Roddy both playing guitar on the new material that whetted many an appetite.

And then it was revealed that the choice of producer was to be Mark Knopfler who at the time was flying very high with Dire Straits but whose songs and style was very much at odds with the Glasgow indie cognoscenti. Some immediately anticipated disaster while others, and I was among them, thought it was an inspired choice that would surely bring out the best in the Roddy and Malcolm as far as guitar playing went.

Some of the new songs were aired in the live setting with one such occasion being a free early evening gig at Glasgow Barrowlands in August 1984 that was broadcast as part of a continuous 15 hour music show on BBC2 (The Cure would also perform from the same venue later in the evening, again as free gig). The crowd response to the new material was fairly muted, partly out of a lack of familiarity with the material but partly as they just didn’t seem to be as strong as the older songs.

A few days later, All I Need Is Everything was released as the advance single. It was a shock to the system. Not as much for the a-side which was decent enough if a tad blander and less catchy than most of us would have liked but for the fact that the b-side being a cover of Jump by Van Halen. Maybe it was meant to be ironic but I hated the original with a passion and just couldn’t bring myself to endure Roddy’s take on it. The other thing that was worrying about the a-side was the fact, just like the remix of Walk Out To Winter when it was released as a 45, there was a fair bit of reliance on a synthesiser on the record which didn’t sit too easy with a number of fans who saw Aztec Camera as being very much a guitar band akin to The Smiths and Everything But The Girl.

The single didn’t quite bomb but three weeks floating around in the mid-30s on the charts was not the outcome the folk at WEA had been anticipating…and the critical backlash to the release of the album just a few weeks later did nothing to help.

More than 30 years on, I’m still of the view that Knife is a stinker of a record albeit it does have the occasional decent moment. Let’s get the truly awful out-of-the-way first………….and that is the fact that the title track would not have sounded out-of-place on a Dire Straits record. It is nine minutes long; it is more akin to noodling or jamming than a proper song; it was unlistenable then and it remains that way today. The one saving grace is that it was the closing track on side 2 and so you could race over to the turntable and lift the needle out of the groove before it started.

Knife also disappointed in other ways. Having only eight songs meant fans felt a bit short-changed. The extended version of All I Need Is Everything on the album was a total waste of time as all we got was two minutes of bland elevator synth muzak tagged on at the end. There wasn’t much evidence of the indie-pop guitar sound many of us had been hoping albeit album opener Still On Fire just about fits bill but is let down again by a reliance on synths in the instrumental break.

I suppose if I hadn’t known anything about Aztec Camera before the release of Knife then I’d have been impressed with Just Like The USA and The Birth of the True but they felt at the time, and still do, as poor relations to tracks on HLHR. Such were the standards on which they were being judged.

The remaining three tracks don’t do anything for me. I was particularly disappointed with Back Door To Heaven, the ballad that closes side one of the album which has an awful production complete with Roddy struggling with a vocal style that was completely alien to him.

So there you have it. A highly personal view that Knife doesn’t cut it. It’s no shock that it cost the band a fair chunk of its initial fanbase., that it also sold poorly and led to a major rethink from all concerned. It would take three years before the next Aztec Camera album would be released by which time only Roddy Frame was left from those who had been involved in the first two records…..

mp3 : Aztec Camera – Still On Fire
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Just Like The USA
mp3 : Aztec Camera – The Birth Of The True

and NOT from the album:-

mp3 : Aztec Camera – All I Need Is Everything (single version)

Enjoy

Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #33: OMD

rhetor has been back in touch again from Canada with what I think is a great piece on a band that were much better in their day than many have given them credit…..and a band that was the firsy ‘synth’ act I ever caught live at the Glasgow Apollo on 10 November 1980.

——————————————————-

According to good old Wikipedia, “The Quietus magazine editor John Doran once remarked: “Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark are not one of the best synth bands ever: they are one of the best bands ever.”

Yes, I figure some TVV readers will say that is putting the case a little strongly, but I really think it would be a dreadful shame if people limited their listening to the first few “experimental” singles that date from the period of their Kraftwerkesque sound and the days of their Peter Saville and Factory Records association, and write the band off as having “sold out” around the time the film Pretty In Pink came out with its chart-topping If You Leave single.

The band itself laughs off the success of this song, by the way, noting that it was written literally over night when the record label asked them for a “hit” (to break through in the lucrative American market) and at the request of film maker John Hughes, who asked them for a new song fast to fit the revised ending of his film (after a last-minute script change owing to negative test market reactions to his original planned ending).

And of course, some may not even be aware that the band is still a going concern, both touring worldwide, and releasing two new albums and a third in the works, all in the last five years. I was lucky enough to catch them live in July 2013 in Toronto, on my birthday no less, at one of their last live shows to date before, three days later (and also in Toronto) band member Malcolm Holmes had a heart incident in mid-show, and the band was forced to take an unforeseen break from live gigs.

But the show I got to see was fantastic, sweaty, and packed, and I danced like such a maniac stage-side that singer Andy McCluskey gave me a huge grin and a thumbs-up (though he is known himself for his energetic, unusual and sometimes gawky moves!).

Side A

Track 1: Enola Gay (from the 1980 album Organisation)

Likely the band’s most recognized and iconic song, this is a great introduction to the dual nature of so many OMD songs: a danceable and poppy synthesizer sound, but married to much darker lyrics…this time about the airplane that dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

There is in fact generally a fascination in the songs of OMD with historical air, rail, and naval transportation. That is, the sometimes strikingly transcendent potential of all three is often contrasted with their darker destructive power, a theme which runs through the songs and albums of the band throughout their 35 year career. This is perhaps most obvious when one glances from the 1983 Dazzle Ships concept album to the 1993 Liberator album (with its nose cone cover art), to their most recent work following the 2006 resurrection of the band following a ten-year hiatus, 2013’s English Electric.

Track 2: Electricity (from the album the 1980 album Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark)

Continuing with the theme of the history of technology, this song makes the perhaps natural connection between synthesizer music’s novel sound, and the power behind it that makes it all possible.

The real feat of the song is that the emotional range and warmth of the voice of singer Andy McCluskey offsets so naturally the “colder” machine generated synthetic sound of the instrumental track. Along with other club hits such as Tesla Girls and Telegraph, the theme of exploring the potential for both good and harm in even the simplest forms of technology continues, through the very unexpected medium of new wave dance music, treated from the uniquely historical perspective of “hindsight”.

Track 3: Maid of Orleans (from the 1981 album Architecture and Morality)

A lovely tune, and one of two songs about Joan of Arc on the same album, both released as singles. This track was originally to be titled Joan of Arc as well, but the record label told them that was just nuts…

Track 4: Forever Live and Die (from the 1986 album The Pacific Age)

One of my favourite OMD tracks, in fact, as for some reason I can’t get enough of the soaring vocals of the line in the chorus, with its sudden descent into the title, “I never know, I never know, I never know, I never know why…Forever Live and Die”. Maybe it’s just me…

Track 5: International (from the 1983 album Dazzle Ships)

For me, this is the best track on what is probably the strongest, and most experimental “long ahead of its time” album the band ever created, Dazzle Ships. So good it was, in fact, that it lost the band about 90% of its audience overnight, but satisfied the band’s inner need to experiment with every electronic toy, every tape loop, every news reel sample, every strange sound and industrial screech at their disposal. So I have placed it in its original place, the closing song on the first side of the album.

Side B

Track 6: Metroland (from the 2013 album English Electric)

This is the stand-out track and first single from the bands most recent album, which has actually done quite respectably, both critically and in the all-important sales category. The album itself reached number 1 on the UK Indie Music Charts, and Number 8 on the US Dance Charts. If you listen, you will note that it is really a return to the original sound that made OMD unique, but with just that touch of modern that was enough to catch the eye of the professional club remixers, as one can see by the 6 or so different versions available through the beatport.com dj website, or more inexpensively through YouTube…

Track 7: Secret (from the 1985 album Crush)

This was never as big a hit in the rest of the world, apparently, as it was in my native Canada, for whatever reason—perhaps it is the “children’s chorus of the titular word ‘Secret’ that many find off-putting.

On the band’s website forum, where front-man Andy McCluskey is kind enough to put in frequent appearances, answering questions and offering opinions, he puts it down to the fact that the record label forced radio stations to pull it early to make way for the “next big single” So In Love, before it had time to make any real impact.

But on Toronto indie and alternative radio stations, it played in heavy rotation, and that was (I date myself) the year I was in 8th grade, that difficult and yearning year of awkward parties, relationships which formed quickly and broke up inexplicably, and, yes, secrets, so in a way I think of this as a kind of soundtrack song for that entire period. And when the band chose it (at the crowd’s request) as the encore at the concert they played in Toronto, on a hot sweaty July day in a crammed club packed with people dancing as if they were still crazy and still in 8th grade, it seemed just perfect for the occasion.

Track 8: Pulse (from the 2010 album History of Modern)

The Allmusic review of the album refers to this track as “neo-electro sleaze, full of bedroom whispers, moans, and yearning yelps”, and suggests it is one of the stand-out tracks of the album in being an experimental update to the OMD sound for 2006, after the band had been defunct for a decade.

The album HOM itself is not necessarily their strongest, and not overly experimental musically the way the pre-Pretty-in-Pink albums were, in way more sure to pique the interest of critics, but I figure every good electronic album needs its sleaze, and track 8 is about the right place for it. And one can’t ignore the modern incarnation of OMD either, if one is to be honest…both “new” albums are worth the listen.

Track 9: Souvenir (from the 1981 album Architecture and Morality)

A return here to the earlier material, and the more conventionally “critically approved” material, this time with founder and synth-player Paul Humphreys taking a turn on vocals (as he does, incidentally, on Secret, though this is relatively rare in the band catalogue). But did you hear the 1998 remixes by Sash and Moby, with their deep house re-envisioning of the songs? I believe the interested can find them on YouTube…

Track 10: Messages (from the 1980 album Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark)

It is somehow fitting, I think, to end off with what was the band’s very first hit single from their very first album. It just goes to show how far a very, very simple synthesizer line can take you. I recently picked up from eBay copies of the 10” single for both this and Souvenir, as I have recently taken a great delight in collecting that rarest of vinyl beasts, the 10”.

I am always fascinated at just what makes a band (or a record label) choose that particular beautiful but unwieldy format. Actually, I have a suggestion that I am daring to put out there, for a new series that the The Vinyl Villain (and his followers and contributors) might wish someday to pursue: Top Ten Ten-Inches in Ten Days. Looking at my collection of vinyl, I have always felt the 10” selection, though slim, to be somewhat special…and I am really curious what lurks in the cupboards of TVV in that direction….

And that is it. And if you’ll note, I did not even include “If You Leave”…though it’s not at all a bad song, really…

rehetor

mp3 : OMD – Enola Gay
mp3 : OMD – Electricity
mp3 : OMD – Maid Of Orleans
mp3 : OMD – Forever Live and Die
mp3 : OMD – International
mp3 : OMD – Metroland
mp3 : OMD – Secret
mp3 : OMD – Pulse
mp3 : OMD – Souvenir
mp3 : OMD – Messages

JC adds…..

I too have said 10″ single and featured it back in Dec 2013:-

https://thenewvinylvillain.wordpress.com/2013/12/19/a-great-often-neglected-synth-pop-classic/

It is one of only about 15 singles I have in that shape and size.

Revolving Paint Dream

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 31 of 48)

Yesterday’s posting was about Biff Bang Pow! with its members numbering whose initial line-up was Alan McGee on guitar and vocals, Dick Green on guitar, Joe Foster on bass, and Ken Popple on drums but who, after two singles, saw Dave Evans replace while and guitarist/organist Andrew Innes joined on a part-time basis.

Let’s have a look at the line-up of The Revolving Paint Dream……Andrew Innes, Christine Wanless, Ken Popple and Alan McGee!

Wanless was both the vocalist and the girlfriend of Innes while McGee was seen as an occasional part-time member. In 1984 they released a debut single on Creation but nothing else would emerge until 1987 when an eight-song mini LP was released. By 1989, Luke Hayes had replaced Popple as drummer and that same year a second single and full length album were put out. And that was that, although to be fair Innes got rather busy with Primal Scream from there on in….

The song on CD86 is the debut single…a real piece of psychedelic rock which is not a genre I’m all that fond of:-

mp3 : The Revolving Paint Dream – Flowers In The Sky

It has the distinction of being the second ever release on Creation (73 in 83 by The Legend! was the first release). Here’ s the song from the flip side:-

mp3 : The Revolving Paint Dream – In The Afternoon

Enjoy

Biff Bang Pow!

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #25 : BIFF BANG POW!

I debated this one in my head. Some would argue that Biff Bang Pow! were a London band given that was where they were formed. But as they centred around Alan McGhee I’ve decided they merit a place in this series.

McGee had previously been in The Laughing Apple who had released three singles in the early 80s. Having moved from Glasgow to London he formed Biff Bang Pow!, whose initial line-up was McGee on guitar and vocals, Dick Green on guitar, Joe Foster on bass, and Ken Popple on drums but after two singles Dave Evans replaced Foster (who went solo as Slaughter Joe), while and guitarist/organist Andrew Innes (later to join Primal Scream) joined on a part-time basis.

They were naturally part of the Creation label and over a seven year period they released a total of 13 singles or albums none of which sold in any huge quantities.

I only have one of their songs and it came courtesy of its inclusion on a compilation CD:-

mp3 : Biff Bang Pow! – She Paints

I’ve done some digging and discovered it is the b-side of a 1988 single called She Haunts which I had a listen to on-line and thought was half-decent.

Enjoy

Dead Hope

SOMETHING COMPLETELY NEW – DEAD HOPE

The VV inbox receives hundreds of emails each week with details of new and upcoming bands and singers. As much as I would like to filter through them and find those gems that might be of interest to T(n)VV readers I simply don’t have the time. And besides, most up and coming bands want to attract the attention of a young fan base whose social media skills will quickly spread the good word and the endorsement of a 52 year-old Peter Pan figure might actually count against them.

But I’m making an exception for today only and drawing to your attention demo tracks that have been recorded by a Glasgow-based trio named Dead Hope. The poster above I think is from their debut gig a few months back…its certainly just about all I could find to illustrate this post….and the band have been brought to my attention by Basil Pieroni of Butcher Boy who, as he admits, is friends with its members. Basil knows me well enough however, to realise that I don’t just put things on the blog as a favour to someone and so he handed over a CD and said it wouldn’t matter if I had a listen and filed it away. The thing is though, I do like what I heard:-

mp3 : Dead Hope – Truth Be Told
mp3 : Dead Hope – Swordz

Both songs bring back memories of that warm noisy fuzzbox sound that was very fashionable for a period back in the 80s while there’s a hint of wonderful and much missed Urusei Yatsura about them too.

Turns out there’s a few other that like them too – Steve Lamacq played one of the songs on his BBC 6 show a couple of weeks back after receiving a copy of the demo.

Heres a link to the band’s Facebook page. Feel free to drop in say hi to them.

Beta Band

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT..WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (24)

The Shoebox of Delights – #17 – Chosen by JC
Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos – The Beta Band

Bands very often don’t quite live up to their early work and here perhaps is the best example of a band that were guilty of exactly that. Every single minute of the first three Beta Band EP’s is essential listening (yes even ‘The Monolith’) and for me the best of the bunch is the third one ‘Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos’. Strangely I’d been thinking about doing an Imaginary Compilation for The Beta Band and I still hope that when I head off to the cricket in the next few days they will magically appear as the 11th track and force me to write it. Also I recently sold my vinyl copy of ‘Champion Versions’ to an American guy on Ebay for £110 so they hold a special place in my heart, just for that (saying that I also got £35 for a 7” copy of the very first Stereophonics single – a record which I would have actually given away for free, I digress).

So let me gush a bit about The Beta Band, if you ask me – and you sort of are – The Beta Band helped drag rock music into the 21st century and didn’t really get any credit for doing it. At the end of the 90s Britpop was dying on its arse and The Beta Band came up to it stroked its head and said ‘follow us’. They opened the door to a wonderful new world. A world where hip hop rock electronica, folk and summery pop tunes could be melted together to form a new sound.

Los Amigos Del Beta Bandidos is perhaps the darkest of the three EP’s and it is a much slower type of record. Three of the tracks on here ‘It’s Over’, ‘Push It Out’ and ‘Dr Baker’ appear to be a little preoccupied with death and heartbreak. It the middle of ‘Its Over’ you hear Steve Mason sum this up by singing ‘Please reassure me I’m doing all right’ (you are doing just fine Steve). Then you get some Bird Song, and that is never a good idea in music, but here, it works.

‘Push It Out’ starts with a solitary cymbal and it’s quite an otherworldly track sounds like it was recorded in space or deep under water. After the cymbal you get bass, piano, and then handclaps. Then drums come in and then…Then Steve Mason starts singing. Sublime.

‘Dr Baker’ has a simple sound piano led but it’s a beautifully sad track. The way that the piano twinkles along with a vocal that is a bit chant like and does it continuously over the track seamlessly is brilliant and seemingly effortless. I want to mention the lyrics that appear mid way into this song

“Dr. Baker phoned me again later that day/Said he cried and he really sounded out of it/His wife was dead and his dog was dead/And misery planned inside his head/I tried to reason with him, tried singing/He said, “No boy you’ll never listen”/Try it again, try it again/Try it again, again, again”

I mean, that beautiful isn’t it? If there has to be doom and heartbreak and anguish and ultimately death, I hope that when I meet my maker, Steve Mason is there to sing to my loved ones because, well just because.

Then after all the doom, you get ‘Needles In My Eyes’ a track which is profoundly hopeful – it contains lines like ‘Last night I dropped my heart and I never want to see it again’, a line which describes numbness and emptiness better than most other records that try. Obviously this is the Beta Band’s ‘break up’ record, and it is I guess a pretty sad set of tracks, but the way ‘Needles In My Eyes’ lifts it is nothing short of genius (In my eyes this is the second best track they ever recorded, after ‘She’s the One’ and before ‘Dry The Rain’).

We all know that feeling, and we all think at the time that it will last forever – and whilst its pretty obvious that Steve Mason is feeling terrible, after listening to this, you know he is going to make it – Ok it took a few years and a questionable first actual album before he got there –but he got there.

This is an utterly wonderful record – why it sat so long in my attic waiting to be downloaded I cannot work out, perhaps I thought I’d already done it (I have had the other two EPs done and dusted for years). Doesn’t matter, quality still sounds like quality when you find it again.

mp3 : The Beta Band – It’s Over
mp3 : The Beta Band – Push It Out
mp3 : The Beta Band – Dr Baker
mp3 : The Beta Band – Needles In My Eye

So that was Number 17. Let’s have a few more numbers please…..

JC adds…….

The fact that my choice of #17 turned out to be the same band as was featured in last weekend’s Scottish song is completely coincidental…..it’s like those time when you have your i-pod on shuffle and the song you are thinking of comes on next in a 12,000-1 chance.

Jam

THE JAM SINGLES (4)

The first of the singles to have Bruce Foxton on lead vocal. The third single in a row by The Jam to feature ‘World’ in the title. The first single NOT to appear on an album with the band and label shying away from lifting a second single from the critically beaten-up This Is The Modern World album.

Released on 11 March 1978, it performed reasonably well by reaching #27 in the charts.

mp3 : The Jam – News of the World

The b-side had two new songs, one of which was a Weller composition and the other being from Foxton:-

mp3 : The Jam – Aunties and Uncles (Impulsive Youths)
mp3 : The Jam – Innocent Man

It would go onto be re-released as a 7″ single by Polydor Records on two more occasions – in 1980 and 1983 hitting #53 and #39 respectively. It’s worth noting that the 1983 chart showing was much higher than most of the other singles re-released at that time showing that newer fans were very keen to get their hands on three songs otherwise unavailable.

Just the one additional recording on offer today and it’s from the Paris Theatre in London gig on 1 June 1978 recorded for the BBC series Sight and Sound:-

mp3 : The Jam – News of the World (live)

It’s one where you can appreciate that Weller was actually a decent guitarist in the live setting….it was I’m guessing easier for him to concentrate on his playing when he wasn’t having to also sing lead vocal.

Enjoy

Pulp

BEFORE THEY WERE FAMOUS…

Tim’s imaginary compilation album yesterday understandably concentrated on what is rightly regarded as the band’s golden period. But I’m a bit of a sucker for one of their early songs dating back to 1985 and released as the lead track on an 12″ EP on Fire Records:-

mp3 : Pulp – Little Girl (With Blue Eyes)

It is a precursor to the sort of lyric and tune that would much later on provide the band with critical acclaim and commercial success.

Here’s the equally wonderful b-sides the last of which doesn’t have Jarvis on lead vocal duties:-

mp3 : Pulp – Simultaneous
mp3 : Pulp – Blue Glow
mp3 : Pulp – The Will To Power

Looking back, it was probably just as well that the single was a flop as it would have set the band on an entirely different course and they would in all likelihood have broken up before the 90s came along.

Enjoy.

Pulp

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #32 : PULP

Tim Badger is back again with another marvellous contribution to the series…..

Way back when Britpop was all about Blur vs Oasis, the really cool kids chose Pulp. In Pulp the nerdy kids had a hero, Jarvis Cocker. Cocker a literary and gawky frontman became a sex symbol, famous for peddling a mix of disco and cheesy 80s synth sound with a sideline in frankly pervy lyrics. It is perhaps more clear now than it was at the time that he would define a generation. That generation being the Britpop era. Pulp had been around in varying forms since the early 80s – and yet didn’t really come to real attention until 1993, the year Cocker turned 30 – and it was perhaps this that stood them apart, a sense of mature wit and a different outlook.

In Pulp’s songs, the topics were more adult and realistic, the sex was dirtier and less satisfying, the relationships more fractious and they had characters that you identified with because we’d all been there. This compilation is made up from their three most successful records ‘This is Hardcore’ in 1998, ‘Different Class’ in 1995 and ‘His n Hers’ in 1994. I wanted to include the track ‘Like A Friend’ from Great Expectations OST but I can’t find the CD I have with it on. Sorry. It would have been Track 2 on Side 2

I should perhaps take a moment to acknowledge ‘We Love Life’. This is a gorgeous, expansive album that is much under rated. I tried to get a song on this list but just couldn’t fit it in. It would have been ‘Sunrise’ and it would have ended the compilation. I love that record but it isn’t ‘David’s Last Summer’ which does end the record. The strength of their three album run from ’94 to ’98 is just too overpowering. I’d also point you towards the B-Side of the single This is Hardcore called ‘It’s a Dirty World’ which also should have made this Compilation, but again got shunted by the others.

Side One

1. Babies (from His ‘n’ Hers, 1994)

After about ten years the wilderness, Pulp emerged with this tale of teenage tea time obsession. It begins innocently enough with Jarvis talking about afternoons with girls in bedrooms – before he goes well a bit perverse and then delivering this withering punchline “I only went with her ‘cause she looked like you!”

2. F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E. (from Different Class, 1995)

There was a real war going on between whether it was going to be “F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E.” or “Sorted for E’s & Wizz” that made it on this list and the latter almost won based purely on that awesome synth thing that happens about two and a half minutes in. But in the end I went with this (and forgive me if I leave out the .’s and just call it ‘Feeling’. This is one of the most bizarre songs Pulp ever did – it sounds like Jarvis is coming down from a bad trip but in reality it’s just a bad case of obsession. Lyrically its amongst the best (and claustrophobic) that Jarvis ever wrote and the way its bursts into the chorus is virtually theatrical.

3. The Fear (from This Is Hardcore, 1998)

“This is the sound of someone losing the plot/ Making out that they’re okay when they’re not/ You’re gonna like it, but not a lot/ And the chorus goes like this.” With that line, Pulp delivered the bleak mission of their darkest and most personal work ‘This is Hardcore’ . After finally becoming the celebrity Jarvis was always destined to be – I think he realised that he didn’t want after all – he was in danger of turning into a 1990s equivalent of Ricky Wilson from the Kaiser Chiefs. Unusually for a Pulp track, the keyboard sound of Candida Doyle is hardly there on this song and is replaced by guitars. Sure its bleak but it’s probably their most rewarding song.

4. Disco 2000 (from Different Class 1995)

How many of us can identify with this. The wild expectations of childhood infatuations which come crashing down in adulthood. Everything from the shameless ripping off ‘Gloria’ from the 80s to the wonderful lyrics of this make this songs essential. Disco 2000 is a pretty much like a school disco on record. A magnificent tribute to the one that got away.

5. Pink Glove (from His ‘n’ Hers, 1994)

For me this is the highlight of Pulp’s breakthrough LP and nicely sets out the band’s stall as social commentators with a sordid twist. The object of our narrator’s affections is desperate to please her man – but she should be with our Jarvis, who’d have her just the way she is. Bless.

Side Two

1. Common People (From Different Class, 1995)

Quite simply one of the best British singles, ever, by anyone. Absolutely their defining song, and the classic song of the Britpop era. I toyed with the idea of leaving it off just to be controversial but then I realised that I can’t write about Pulp without mentioning it. It’s too good a record. As a song it scathing yet hilarious, deeply personal yet turns an eye to larger social questions, intelligent yet simple enough to fit within a massively infectious pop melody. And to top it all triumphant enough to close a live show.

2. Do You Remember The First Time? (From His n Hers’, 1994)

Jarvis the lounge suited Romeo reminisces about his first love to whom he is now a distant memory. The thing about this song, when you strip away the melody and the soaring chorus, is that, it is one of Pulps more powerful moments, its urgent, yearning and ferocious but yet fragile, like it would fall apart if you nudged it too hard.

3. This is Hardcore (from This Is Hardcore, 1998)

Clocking in at over six minutes, this is a sordid tale of secrets buried in PVC raincoats. Its sounds indescribably sinister. It s adopts a late night vibe and a raft of distorted guitar riffs that eventually gives way to strings and sounds so utterly dejected. One of the saddest Pulp songs around and probably the closest thing that geeks have to ‘Sexual Healing’.

4. Something Changed (from Different Class, 1995)

Yes, another single, sorry it is single heavy, yet, what singles they are. Something Changed is Pulp at their sweetest, with Pulp pondering fate, chance and relationships. When you look at love songs, 99% are clichéd drivel, but this is in the 1% that stand out.

5. David’s Last Summer (from His ‘n’ Hers, 1994)

The glory of Pulp is that they don’t really feel like a band who just stitch songs together – nor do they just build to crescendo and stop. They fell like stories unfolding, often narrated and this is perhaps the best story they recorded. Jarvis sings “Drunk on the Sun, I Suppose” before shouting “I Want you to Stay!” as the violins and distortion overcomes him. You never find out why this was Davids Last Summer, I’m guessing that it was a song about the loss of youth or perhaps a person, but it’s the greatest ending of an album that I can think of.

Tim B

mp3 : Pulp – Babies
mp3 : Pulp – F.E.E.L.I.N.G.C.A.L.L.E.D.L.O.V.E
mp3 : Pulp – The Fear
mp3 : Pulp – Disco 2000
mp3 : Pulp – Pink Glove
mp3 : Pulp – Common People
mp3 : Pulp – Do You Remember The First Time?
mp3 : Pulp – This Is Hardcore
mp3 : Pulp – Something Changed
mp3 : Pulp – David’s Last Summer

JC adds…………….Pulp were on my list of bands to feature in this series and my ten wouldn’t have been too far removed from Tim’s offering. I can however, provide a bonus track for him given that he wanted to include it on the LP but didn’t have the song to hand:-

mp3 : Pulp – Like A Friend

Enjoy.

Dentists

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 30 of 48)

I’ve lifted this from the bio, penned by a fan, over at all music….

Although The Dentists were arguably the first Brit-pop band, they never were able to capitalize when the style they’d perfected over the course of a decade suddenly became the Next Big Thing around 1994. Their signature sound, a combination of Mick Murphy‘s veddy British voice and Bob Collins‘ hyperactively jangly guitar, has been duplicated many times over, but it’s never quite been equaled.

Formed in their native Chatham, a small town in rural Kent, in 1983, the original lineup comprised Murphy, Collins, bassist Mark Matthews, and drummer Ian Smith. Their first single, Strawberries Are Growing in My Garden (And It’s Wintertime), was released on the tiny indie Spruck Records in 1985. A neo-freakbeat masterpiece that sounds like it could have been recorded in 1967, “Strawberries” remained the Dentists’ best-known and most beloved song for the rest of their career. That early peak was quickly followed by the album Some People Are on the Pitch They Think It’s All Over It Is Now (the title taken from the famous end of the 1966 World Cup final won by England) and the six-song EP You and Your Bloody Oranges, which have no overlapping tracks. The album titles, matched with songs like One of Our Psychedelic Beakers is Missing and Where’s My Chicken, You Bastard, made the group out to be a bunch of paisley-clad goofballs in some reviewers’ eyes, a mistaken first impression that never entirely went away.

Smith left the group in early 1986, replaced by the equally anonymously named Alun Jones. In contrast to their exceptionally busy first year of recordings, the quartet only managed two EPs in 1986 and 1987, Down and Out in Paris and Chatham and Writhing on the Shagpile. In 1988, the Belgian label Antler released a compilation entitled Beer Bottle and Bannister Symphonies: A Collection of Some of the Finer Moments of Dentistry followed by an EP’s worth of new material, The Fun Has Arrived.

Oddly, for a band that had been so productive in the early years of their career, The Dentists all but disappeared for over two years at this point, only contributing one new track, Snapdragon, to the compilation Time Will Show the Wiser in 1989.

However, when they reappeared in 1991 with the new album Heads and How to Read Them, they launched a new and even busier phase of their career. Besides a pair of singles extracted from the album, both with excellent and otherwise unavailable B-sides, The Dentists landed exclusive tracks on a number of compilations and finally began an attempt to introduce themselves to the American market, which they had so far ignored. A 10″ EP, Naked, compiled seven rarities from 1986 and 1987, most of them previously unreleased. This was followed in 1992 by Dressed, a 22-track CD of other songs from the 1985-1987 era, containing nearly all of Some People Are on the Pitch and the best moments from the EPs. (There’s a fair amount of overlap with the 1988 Belgian CD.)

Along with that spate of reissues, the Dentists released a series of three thematically linked singles on three different indie labels, each with a poem by John Hegley on the B-side. The songs (but unfortunately, not the poems) were compiled in 1993 on the U.S. release Powdered Lobster Fiasco, along with re-recorded versions of several other songs from the preceding five years. New drummer Rob Grigg replaced Jones starting with these singles. Later in 1993, The Dentists unexpectedly signed with a major American label, the East/West division of Atlantic. Although this proved to be as unlikely a pairing as it sounded (East/West was primarily an R&B imprint), the label immediately went to work on establishing its indie credibility by releasing a box set of three 7″ singles, Bigbangredshiftblackholes, which included several tracks from their upcoming album and a clutch of demos, rehearsal versions, and otherwise unavailable songs.

That album, 1994’s Behind the Door I Keep the Universe, turned out to be one of their best, but it unfortunately stiffed completely despite East/West’s best promotional efforts, which included a hard to find but extremely cool hour-long promo disc called Radio Novocaine, featuring The Dentists playing some of their favorite recent singles and interviewing each other. Apparently disillusioned, they made the unwise decision of having New York City noise rock maestro Wharton Tiers produce 1995’s Deep Six. Tiers layers the songs with unnecessary guitar grunge and the tempos are uncharacteristically sluggish. It’s a dispiriting record with an unfortunately accurate title. After its release and subsequent commercial failure, East/West dropped the Dentists. Collins called it a day, retiring from the music business; Murphy, Matthews, and Grigg found a new guitarist and formed the short-lived Coax.

—————

The thing is, despite releasing so much material with a pedigree that should be of huge appeal to a man with my range of tastes, I only have one track by The Dentists and it is the one of the CD86 compilation.

mp3 : The Dentists – I Had An Excellent Dream

They are a band that passed me by completely and so I’m putting out the request……does anyone have the knowledge and music to do a Compilation Album to introduce me further??

Over to you dear readers….

Beta Band

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #24 : THE BETA BAND

The Beta Band (1996-2004) were an alternative rock group who received much critical acclaim and achieved cult status, but failed to make much of a commercial impact on the popular music scene. Their style was self-described as being folk hop, a blend of folk, rock, trip hop, and experimental jamming.

Their music has featured on numerous film and TV soundtracks. The song Dry the Rain from their 1997 debut EP, Champion Versions, was possibly their most popular track and was famously featured in the film, High Fidelity.

Their live performances were legendary, often ending with the whole band playing percussion. Their dancing and energy got the whole audience moving, often in the same style as their idols on stage. It has been suggested, sometimes by the band themselves, that they were better live than recorded.

All I have in my possession is The Three EPs compilation that brings together 12 tracks released between 1997 and 1998 including the aforementioned Dry The Rain. It’s an album that Q magazine back in 2000 placed at #74 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever while Pitchfork had it is high as #23 in its Top 100 Albums of the 1990s.

mp3 : The Beta Band – Dog’s Got A Bone

Enjoy

Jam

THE JAM SINGLES (3)

The first of the singles to have its lyrics altered to enable radio play (not that we knew that until we heard the album version!!).

Released on 15 October 1977, the first single to be lifted from the as yet unreleased second album stumbled a bit in that its peak of #36 was a long way removed from the near Top Ten achievement of the previous 45.

mp3 : The Jam – The Modern World

The b-sides were taken from a gig at the 100 Club in London on 11 September 1977 and featured two cover versions as well as one original:-

mp3 : The Jam – Sweet Soul Music/Back In My Arms Again/Bricks and Mortar (live)

The first of the covers was originally released in 1967 by Arthur Conley, hitting #7 in the UK charts, and with its lyrics mentioning other well-known songs from the genre it is regarded as an homage to soul music. The second had been a #1 hit in the USA for The Supremes back in 1965 but it had been a flop in the UK only reaching #40 which in those days was regarded as not actually reaching the charts. The third of the tracks, from the In The City LP wasn’t listed on the record sleeve which is no real surprise as the recording on the record fades out very quickly even though it obvious the band were playing the song to its natural conclusion. Very peculiar.

The Modern World would go onto be re-released as a 7″ single by Polydor Records on two more occasions – in 1980 and 1983 hitting #52 and #51 respectively.

Three additional recordings on offer today. The first is from the band’s second session for John Peel recorded on 19 July 1977 and broadcast six days later:-

mp3 : The Jam – The Modern World (Peel Session)

The date of the session predates the single release by three months and you’ll note the band, in accordance with what was expected during Peel Sessions, refrained from recording the sweary version.

The song was also aired at the Paris Theatre in London gig on 1 June 1978 recorded for the BBC series Sight and Sound:-

mp3 : The Jam – The Modern World (live, 1978)

Again, you’ll note that the BBC used technology to blank out the word ‘fuck’ when they broadcast the show.

The song was also included as one of the tracks on the bonus 7″ offered up with the initial 100,000 copies of Going Underground from a gig at the Rainbow Theatre in London on 3 November 1979:-

mp3 : The Jam – The Modern World (live, 1979)

Paul Weller doesn’t hold back with his vocal delivery on this occasion.

Enjoy

Verve

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT..WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (23)

The Shoebox of Delights – Lucy Pittman Picked Number 25
All In The Mind – The Verve

This is a true story, it sees the return of Our Price Girl, who dumped me for daring to diss Carl Puttnam the singer in Cud, and it also features the band Dodgy. Stop…Come Back. Its doesn’t feature their music, just them.

My first ever gig as a music lover was Neds Atomic Dustbin at Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone. I went with Chris (him of the Dubstar argument) and a chap called Geoff, who was an idiot. We got there early, largely because Geoff’s dad dropped up down there at about 4pm because he had to get back and pick his mum up (the only reason we asked Geoff is because we knew his Dad would ferry us about all over the shop). It being some three hours before the doors opened, we decided to hit the arcades in the town, grab a burger and try our luck with the locals girls, we were all (nearly) 16 – had £20 in our pockets and frankly, the world was our oyster. We forgot that it was Folkestone, a Wednesday afternoon, late February and absolutely freezing.

In one arcade on seafront, there was an old school Space Invaders Game, I was quite good at this and decided to put 50p in and see if I could beat the highest score (turns out the high score was about 70 as the machine had only been switched on for about 15 minutes) so off I went. About ten minutes in to the game a bloke with a hat asked if he could join it on the two player option. I let him, he was really good at Space Invaders, I mean, brilliant at it.

This ladies and gents was Nigel, the singer in Dodgy. I found this after the game, when he bought me a Coke. We had a chat and basically he told me what he was doing in the craphole that was Folkestone (now days Folkestone is a lovely place, home to Fruitbat from Carter USM, amongst other rock royalty) he was supporting Neds Atomic Dustbin. About two hours later I found Geoff and Chris again hiding behind some trees in a park, both having been ‘chased along the beach by Townies’ – they never explained why this had happened.

Anyway, we ambled along to the gig, and there was a massive queue, at 6.45pm – we grumbled and wandered to the back of the queue, halfway along a voice called out to me, It was Nigel – he got us in quickly as part of his road crew. I was (nearly) 16 and already a roadie for Dodgy, did life get any better than this? (yes, as it happens, much better, but that is another story…)

The gig was insignificant, I spent most of it near the bar drinking Newcastle Brown Ale, supplied to me by Nigel from Dodgy. I later threw up in Geoff’s Dad’s Volvo Estate (come on I was (nearly) 16 and had at least three bottles). I honestly don’t remember a single song that Neds played.

Now what relevance does this has to The Verve (or Verve as they were then), well let’s fast forward about 12 months or so. I am now (nearly) 17 and seriously interested in Our Price Girl, and most weekends I take my hard earned wages (serving people in a shop was hard work in the early 90s) and spend it on records and CDs in order to impress Our Price Girl. So it is Saturday, and I have just listened to the Gary Crowley show on GLR (where is he now?) and he played Worth the Blood by Dodgy and I decided that I should pop down to Our Price and buy that and tell Our Price Girl all about how I know Nigel from Dodgy (which I did, really well – having seen them twice since the Neds gig), if that didn’t get her phone number then nothing would (as it happened it didn’t work but buying the first Pavement album about three months later did).

So I rock up, find the Dodgy single, and pop it on the counter. She picks it up, ‘Really’ she said. Yeah, they are mates of mine I say, ‘Oh’. Our Price Girl is completely and utterly uninterested, I may as well have been speaking Slovakian, and it’s almost as if the singer from Dodgy is mates with everyone or is as important as your local postman. She turns round and lays another CD next to it. ‘This is better’ she said. It is All in the Mind by (The) Verve. I hadn’t heard of this, I vaguely remember the NME mentioning it in the last issue. So I am in a quandary, do I forego my rock star mates, Dodgy, for the recommendation of (the admittedly, hot) Our Price Girl?

I don’t think I even put the Dodgy single back in the rack, and I know for a fact that I never bought another Dodgy record in my life. She smiles at me as she puts the CD in the bag. I smile back, blushing like a fool, ‘You going to Club Orange tonight?’ she says. I have no idea what Club Orange is, ‘Yeah definitely’ I say. ‘See you there then’. ‘Yup’ I say. My mind is already racing and I spend the next five hours trying to find out what Club Orange is and where it is.

Did I make the right musical decision? Unquestionably. ‘All In the Mind’ is one of those debut singles that after one listen you knew that this would be a band that you would grow to love and love. Also for what its worth, ‘All in the Mind’ also houses the greatest B Side ever recorded Man Called Sun. A record that should have been the lead track and a track that Dodgy would have killed for.

mp3 : Verve – All In The Mind
mp3 : Verve – One Way To Go
mp3 : Verve – A Man Called Sun

Did I make it Club Orange? No I didn’t, not that night anyway. That took another six weeks.

Oh just because I’m feeling generous – here are two more great Verve B Sides.

mp3 : Verve – Monkey Magic (Brainstorm Mix)
mp3 : Verve – Let The Damage Begin

So let’s have some more numbers then folks….

JC adds……

I want #17. I actually wanted #18 but it has already gone. So its #17 next week or nothing!!!

Stars

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #31 : STARS

A guest contribution from Friend of Rachel Worth, a very long time supporter and contributor to this and the old blog and whose own musings can be found on the much-loved and much-missed Cathedrals of Sound.

I have to confess that his contribution features a band I’ve heard of but until this point in time only knew two of their songs…..both of which feature in FoRW’s piece and so, just as I found myself really enjoying Tilly and The Wall the other week as a new discovery, so it has proved with Stars.

FoRW writes……………..

This Imaginary LPs series is damn hard. I’d tried one for Prefab Sprout but gave up when I realised for side one I was just going to replicate side one of Steve McQueen. I had a rough cut for the Blue Nile when I remembered they weren’t the flavour in VV world. I’d finally got one sorted and was about to press send when to my horror rhetor had beaten me to it with his excellent Trashcan Sinatras choices. All was not lost as in his post he mentioned a band I really liked who seem to be met by continued indifference despite being at various times a strange brew of New Order, Pet Shop Boys, The Smiths and St Etienne. A quick look down the side bar also revealed that they had not featured on the blog before.

Stars are a Canadian band with 8 LPs to their name and led by the gloriously named Torquil Campbell. In many ways they are the perfect band for an imaginary LP in that their own LPs can be a bit patchy; however each one has at least a couple of killer tracks. Having said that none of he final 10 come from the debut LP Night Songs (despite the temptation the include their version of This Charming Man). I guess how much you like them depends on how much you like a boy / girl vocal dynamic which they do an awful lot! Any way here goes

Side 1

1 Your Ex Lover is Dead

This is the first track I heard by the band and what a way to kick off “If there is nothing left to burn you have to set yourself on fire” sampled from the singers father heralds a great two-handed story of ex lovers meeting at a party , all pretend indifference “god that was strange to see you again , introduced by a friend of a friend , I smiled and said yes I think We’ve met before ….. all of that time you thought I was sad I was trying to remember your name” to joyful good riddance “I’ll write you a postcard , send you a note , from the house down the road , from real love”. Less electronic than some of their tracks the music builds and swells to the kiss off of “I’m not sorry there’s nothing to say”

2 Heart

Another love gone wrong with a bit of a nursery rhyme sing along and the highlight to the 2nd LP. This also starts a bit of a trend where the title tracks are the strongest songs on their various lps . The chorus from the ex girlfriend has a wonderful ambiguity that you can read a couple of ways “all right I can say what you want me to , alright I can do all the things you do , all right I can make it all up for you , I’m still in love with you” . I love that the song goes on for about a min more than it needed to , just floating along. I am a bit of a sucker for an extended outro.

3 Look Away

The latest album from last year feels like a bit of last throw of the dice , an effort to make an LP full of potential singles. As a result it does sum up a bit of a dilemma with Stars in that too much can be a bit sugary , however there is normally enough bite in the lyrics to leave a bit of sour. This is a case in point – just a nice mid-paced tune the type they do so well , but with an ache in the lyric.

4 Personal

A change of pace for a pre Tinder world and a journey through the single ads “Wanted single F , under 33, must enjoy the Sun must enjoy the sea” . The whole things is slightly sinister and captures a sense of despair and sorrow The lyrics are conversational with the final verse not really holding out much hope as the whole things starts again.

5 Romantic Comedy

Another boy girl vocal , another hook laden song , another bit of pure pop . Worth it for the lyric “You think that You’re bad , but you’re just badly raised”. By now you maybe close to sugar overdose – so I suggest you cleanse your palette before side 2.

Side 2

1 Dead Hearts

Opening track from the largely disappointing Five Ghosts LP. There is something about those call and response vocals I really like , as well as the building to the wall of sound of the chorus

2 North

A real favourite of mine – capture a feeling of regret and nostalgia in pretty pop song. Once heard the “good luck , bad luck” chorus is hooked in and will be ringing round your head all day. Again the mix of keyboards and strings works. There is something about the opening line “Its so cold in this country , every road home is long” just seems to say so much and takes me right back to living for 18 months in a Glasgow tenement basement.

3 Trap Door

Another one from the latest album . If I still went to indie discos I can imagine this going down a storm . A simple shout along pop song. Good enough to just about forgive the sax solo. Almost too immediate and one of those songs you can imagine tiring of – almost too catchy but for the moment I am happy to sing along.

4 The 400

The lull after the storm , okay after the slightly strong wind. . So much meaning in such a simple repeated line “It has to go right this time”

5 Calendar Girl

Back to the same LP as side 1 track 1 so a neat feeling of symmetry . This is when they were at their best slightly less keyboards and slightly more guitar . The rallying cry of “I’m Alive “ feels like a good place to stop.

So there we are . 10 tracks maybe in this case be too much but there are some individual crackers here which I hope you like.

FoRW

mp3 : Stars – Your Ex Lover Is Dead
mp3 : Stars – Heart
mp3 : Stars – Look Away
mp3 : Stars – Personal
mp3 : Stars – Romantic Comedy
mp3 : Stars – Dead Hearts
mp3 : Stars – North
mp3 : Stars – Trap Door
mp3 : Stars – The 400
mp3 : Stars – Calendar Girl

JC adds………….

It was the last of these ten that I knew before FoRW’s wonderful contribution. That and the track he mentioned in his introduction:-

mp3 : Stars – This Charming Man

Consider this the hidden track on the imaginary album……

Aztec Camera, Roddy Frame

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #30: RODDY FRAME

I was lucky enough just last Friday to get myself along to see Roddy Frame play an outdoor solo acoustic set in front of an adoring home audience at the restored bandstand in Kelvingrove Park here in Glasgow. He was on blistering form and relaxed enough to engage in a fair bit of entertaining chat with the audience in between songs. It was only after this set, which extended out to well over 100 minutes, that I fully appreciated just how many great songs he’s written over the years under his own name and of course under the label of Aztec Camera. And that was after a set that didn’t include all four of his Postcard songs!!

So I thought it would be worthwhile giving him the imaginary album treatment.

Side A

Track 1: Western Skies (from the 2006 solo album Western Skies)

This wasn’t aired at the recent gig and more’s the pity. It’s the opening track to what was the third LP released under his own name. I rarely like when ballads open up albums but this is such a lovely little understated song with very fine acoustic guitar plucking and a melodoica. And I’m a sucker for that particular instrument…

Track 2: The Boy Wonders (from the 1983 Aztec Camera album High Land Hard Rain)

Notwithstanding that some of the production has dated poorly there can be no question that the first Aztec Camera LP is one of the greatest records in Scottish history. It is a record packed with ridiculously catchy and memorable tunes and some wonderfully observant lyrics. And of course Roddy Frame wrote most of the songs before he had reached his 18th birthday. This song may not have been a single but it is the one that really has endured…a joyous celebration of youthful life with that fearless take on things that you have at that age. And its a great record to dance to.

Track 3: How Men Are (from the 2006 solo CD Live In Osaka)

I have a real love/hate relationship with the third Aztec Camera LP from 1987. Love is over-produced to the point where at times it becomes near unlistenable which is a damn shame as some of Roddy’s best songs can be found among its nine tracks. It is when you hear them played nowadays, almost 30 years later, with just the voice and the acoustic guitar to occupy your thoughts, that you get a full appreciation of their majesty. As with this, the sublime second track on Love but captured live in Osaka, Japan in September 2006.

Track 4: Just Like Gold (Postcard single, 1981)

A 16-year old kid wrote this. Johnny Marr must have been tuning in and been inspired. And Grant McLennan and Robert Forster will have looked on while they made their fleeting visit to Glasgow to record for Postcard and smiled at being in the presence of a genius.

I’ll admit that this wasn’t a song I took an instant shine to. It was, if anything, too clean sounding. I realise now that my musical tastes in 1981 hadn’t quite evolved enough to appreciate it. It’s now probably my favourite Aztec Camera song of them all.

Track 5: Orchid Girl (b-side of the Aztec Camera single Oblivious, 1982)

I somehow haven’t found space on this imaginary offering for the single that first brought the band to the wider attention of the record buying public albeit I think it’s a belter of a 45. But it is the b-side I have always been really fond of….not least as it helped me along the way to reassessing how I felt about Just Like Gold. A short while later I fell for the charms of Billy Bragg and there’s many a time I’ve thought that Orchid Girl is the greatest BB love song that he never wrote…..

Side B

Track 6: Bigger Brighter Better (from the 1998 solo CD The North Star)

The North Star was the first album that Roddy hadn’t released as Aztec Camera and yet it is the album which overall is closest to the Aztec Camera debut record than any other in that it was packed with hooks and catchy choruses. There’s an irony in there somewhere….

This track, tucked away in the middle of the CD, was the one that I thought at the time could have taken him back into the charts if the record label, Independiente, had gone for it as a single….but they didn’t. It’s the one where Roddy reflects how maybe he wasn’t quite prepared for everything that was involved with being a pop star on a major label. There would have been a real irony if Bigger Brighter Better had turned out to be his return to the singles charts.

The final irony? In 1999, Independiente oversaw the release of The Man Who by Travis – a record that wasn’t really all that far removed from the sort of songs Roddy had tried to make his comeback with and yet it sold in millions. The record buying public at their fickle best.

Track 7: Killermont Street (from the 2006 solo CD Live In Osaka)

The closing track on the Love album wasn’t one that suffered from too much over production and almost made the cut. But there’s just something a bit special hearing Roddy, with just a guitar for accompaniment, deliver this ode to his roots at a venue thousands of miles away and realising that it’s a song capable of bringing a lump to the throats of an audience who have never set foot in the famed bus station.

Track 8: We Could Send Letters (from the 1983 Aztec Camera album High Land Hard Rain)

Originally released on the b-side of Just Like Gold and I honestly don’t know which of the versions I prefer.

The original is more dependant on the acoustic guitar and in comparison to the album version is almost demo-like in nature but comes with a passion and energy that makes it an essential listen. However, the slicker production and the fact the tempo on the album version is slightly slower allows the song to breathe a bit more. Oh and it’s also nearly a minute or so longer in length with a cracking solo from Roddy thrown in that ensures its place on this imaginary compilation.

Track 9: Good Morning Britain (from the b-side of the 1992 Aztec Camera single Dream Sweet Dreams)

A rare time when Roddy puts the guitar to one side and plays the piano to turn his radio-friendly stomp chart hit into a thing of beauty. The lyric was always a social commentary on life in the UK under a right-wing Tory government with no prospect of things changing but was kind of lost in the bombastic tune that with the help of Mick Jones took Aztec Camera into the charts for one last time in 1990. This live version demonstrates just how great a song it is….maybe it is time for it to be dusted down and updated to take account of life under David Cameron….

Track 10: Down The Dip (bootlegged version from Paisley Abbey, 27 October 2012)

The closing track from High Land Hard Rain has always been a crowd favourite. Nowadays, and this is what he did at Glasgow the other week, Roddy extends it out with a coda of It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding) and then shows off his guitar skills. There’s a few versions of this out there but the fact that this was another gig in front of a home crowd who you can sense are going wild in the aisles of the historic old church makes it an ideal closer for this imaginary compilation……

mp3 : Roddy Frame – Western Skies
mp3 : Aztec Camera – The Boy Wonders
mp3 : Roddy Frame – How Men Are (live)
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Just Like Gold
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Orchid Girl
mp3 : Roddy Frame – Bigger Brighter Better
mp3 : Roddy Frame – Killermont Street (live)
mp3 : Aztec Camera – We Could Send Letters (LP version)
mp3 : Aztec Camera – Good Morning Britain (live)
mp3 : Roddy Frame – Down The Dip (live)

Enjoy!

Fall

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #29 : THE FALL

The alternative title of this posting is ‘The day I pissed off my good mate ctel (aka Acid Ted)’. He just does not like The Fall and there’s no convincing him other wise.

With so many tracks to choose from this could have been a stupidly impossible task. Instead, I narrowed it down to choosing ten from the forty-seven songs listed as singles on wiki. It’s also very heavy reliant on what could be broadly termed indie-disco material which I accept isn’t fully representative of the band:-

Side A

1. Touch Sensitive (Artful Records, 1999 : #104)

Hey Hey Hey…..and familiar to millions as that strange song which helped sell cars

2. Oh! Brother (Beggars Banquet, 1984 : #93)

With the best bass guitar lead line outside of Hooky and New Order

3. Hit The North (Beggars Banquet, 1987 : #57)

The single before this and the single after this both made the Top 40 – but they were both covers (There’s A Ghost In My House and Victoria) and while more than decent they’re not a patch of Mark E Smith’s paean to his Lancashire roots. Catchy as fuck chorus.

4. Free Range (Cog Sinister, 1992 : #40)

The best-performing of any of the non-covers, what sounds like a nonsensical almost freeform lyric is actually a superb dissection of political history and a warning about the rise of right-wing politicians across Europe.

5. Theme From Sparta F.C. #2 (Action Records, 2004 : #66)

And jst as indie-guitar rock with catchy choruses briefly came back into fashion again here in the UK, Mark reminded everyone that he’s been doing it for years and that when he turns his mind to it he can outdo any of the young pretenders

Side B

1. Totally Wired (Rough Trade, 1980 : did not chart)

One of the very finest post-punk/new wave songs of all time. It might sound a bit rough’n’ready nowadays but for something that is now 35 years of age it still feels awfully fresh. I’m sure every alt/indie/punk band on either side of the Atlantic have been influenced in some shape or form by this

2. Cruiser’s Creek (Beggars Banquet, 1985 : #96)

How this piece of indie-dance magnificence never charted remains one of the great mysteries of life. I’m dancing away as I type this….it has made for a lot of spelling mistakes that have had to be corrected!

3. Rowche Rumble (Step Forward Records, 1979 : did not chart)

It starts off as if its going to be a great songs to shake your hips to on the dance floor and then it goes all majestic in a noisy way that will annoy your parents who will say ‘can’t play and can’t sing….it’s just a racket and turn it down’ Or if you move forward to 2015 the same words will be uttered by a wife who just doesn’t get them…..

4. 15 Ways (Permanent Records, 1994 : #65)

This is a cracking pop tune that if given to a more orthodox lead singer than our Mark would surely have been a Top 10 single.

5. Hey! Luciani (Beggars Banquet, 1986 : #59)

Because you can never have too many songs about a Pope who died suddenly just 33 days after his election to the position….and also because as my mate Aldo knows I have an alternative rude lyric that I sing while dancing to this!

mp3 : The Fall – Touch Sensitive
mp3 : The Fall – Oh! Brother
mp3 : The Fall – Hit The North
mp3 : The Fall – Free Range
mp3 : The Fall – Theme From Sparta F.C. #2
mp3 : The Fall – Totally Wired
mp3 : The Fall – Cruiser’s Creek
mp3 : The Fall – Rowche Rumble
mp3 : The Fall – 15 Ways
mp3 : The Fall – Hey! Luciani

Bonus track

mp3 : The Fall – No Bulbs 3

One of my favourites but disqualified as it wasn’t necessarily the lead track on an EP from 1984.

Enjoy.

Clouds

NEXT YEAR’S NOSTALGIA FEST (Part 29 of 48)

Today’s lot were near impossible to get information on.

What I can tell you is that The Clouds were formed in Glasgow in 1986 by brothers John and Bill Charnley. A song of theirs was featured as a flexidisc on a locally based fanzine which led, in due course, to them signing up to The Subway Organisation for who they recorded a one-off single in January 1988 before seemingly quitting the music scene for good.

I only heard of the band as a result of one of their songs featuring on a Rough Trade compilation CD back in 2002; the same song would subsequently feature on CD86:-

mp3 : The Clouds – Get Out Of My Dream

It was the b-side of their Subway single and it’s a decent enough bit of music without transcending into the memorable or totally special; it also says a lot that it seems to be more fondly thought of than the a-side, but I have managed to track a copy down for inclusion today. It is a sound not too dissimilar from what could be described as a rough version of Teenage Fanclub:-

mp3 : The Clouds – Tranquil

Turns out that at some point I’ve also picked up a copy of the song that came with the fanzine. I can only assume that I downloaded it from another blog at some point in time or had it sent to me by a reader as being something of interest but I haven’t kept any record of how the mp3 came to be on the hard drive:-

mp3 : The Clouds – Jenny Nowhere

It is a bit lo-fi as you’d expect from a flexidisc. And very much of its time.

Enjoy

Belle & Sebastian

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #23 : BELLE & SEBASTIAN

Belle and Sebastian should feature regularly on this blog. I’ve got all the songs, I’ve been along to see them live on many an occasion….hell I’ve even danced alongside Stuart Murdoch at various indie discos and there was one never to be repeated event when we were fellow guests at a wedding and together with the groom we grooved away a few minutes as a trio to a Go Betweens song.

The problem is however, that every time I put a song up I get hit with a dmca notice and there was a real run of those together a few years ago which ultimately led to google/blogger closing down the original site without warning. It may well be the band’s record label, particularly over the in the USofA who are behind the crackdown but equally it might just be that I pissed off a fan who then came gunning for me. My crime being to dismiss totally a b-side of a B&S single as one of the most appalling covers of a truly appalling original (it was Baby Jane originally taken to #1 back in the day by Rod Stewart).

Anyways. Here as a one-off….unless this one doesn’t get taken down and leads me to do an Imaginary Compilations effort on the band (another near impossible task)….is the 45 of the band that I still can’t quite fathom never made it into my 45 45s at 45 rundown back in 2008.

mp3 : Belle and Sebastian – Legal Man

Quality.

Chuck D, Elastica, Hole, James, Lush, Radiohead

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT..WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (22)

The Shoebox of Delights – The Robster Picked Number 18
‘Nowhere’ Original Soundtrack – Various Artists

Soundtracks. I rarely buy them, in fact I own two. This one, which I didn’t buy, and Trainspotting which was a gift at Christmas. The problem with soundtracks is that you never get one that is 100% full of good tracks. You get the odd track, the odd unreleased gem, the odd hard to find song, but you wouldn’t buy the whole thing because it also contains Celine Dion, Phil Collins or Mumford and Sons.

Nowhere is no different. It contains some excellent music but it contains some utter utter shite as well. Believe me no compilation album with Marilyn Manson on it is worth buying.

Nowhere is a Gregg Araki film about the Doomed Generation or something – here is a snippet from the press stuff around the film

“A group of teenagers try to sort out their lives and emotions while bizarre experiences happen to each one, including alien abductions, bad acid trips, bisexual experiences, suicides, bizarre deaths, and a rape by a TV star. All of this happens before “the greatest party of the year”.

Now bearing in mind my favourite film of all time is Raiders of the Lost Ark followed by Back To the Future II – this isn’t my type of film but it does have a pretty good soundtrack (Marilyn Manson, 311, Coco and the Bean and Catherine Wheel withstanding)

Going off topic slightly I was once on a training course and we did this stupid ‘icebreaking’ thing where you had to name your favourite food, favourite album, favourite film and fantasy dinner party guest to a bunch of strangers. Anyway, I was sat on a table with four chaps, one I can only describe as a ‘hipster twat’ and when it was his turn to talk about his favourite film (this was after I said mine and the chap next to me, said ‘I don’t know, probably Jaws’) said this “I guess, I’m kinda leftfield, my film would be something by Russian avant garde agent provocateur Alexandr Soukurov”. That is what he said. Hope he’s reading this and if so – your beard looked crap and from the look of it your tattooist has put the Sanskrit word for ‘Knobjockey’ on your left arm.

Anyway, the soundtrack, let’s talk about the good stuff, the best track on it by far is by Chuck D ‘Generation Wrekked’ angry, shouty hip hop at its best by the guy who does it better than anyone else on the planet. There are some other gems ‘How Can You Be Sure?’ by Radiohead – which I think features on the B side on ‘Fake Plastic Trees’ but dates back to when they weren’t even called Radiohead (thanks Badgerman, for that snippet of information, he really is a walking Radiohead encyclopaedia). You get an Elastica track ‘In the City’ which I think is only available on a BBC Radio Sessions, and at just over 90 seconds, it is exactly what you expect from Elastica snotty, ferocious and bratty. There is also ‘Dicknail’ by Hole, which is them at their rawest, angriest and ultimately best. It’s a downright nasty song but its also great.

mp3 : Chuck D – Generation Wrekked
mp3 : Radiohead – How Can You Be Sure
mp3 : Elastica – In The City
mp3 : Hole – Dicknail

There are a couple of tracks which are not rare, ‘Life Is Sweet’ by the Chemical Brothers is here (given the Daft Punk remix treatment) in all its eight minute glory and ‘Trash’ by Suede – or The London Suede as the album calls them. Both are excellent – the Suede track ends the album and rather lifts the gloom from the Americanised College rock that precedes it.

You also get a few tracks by decent bands who recorded them specifically for this album – there are two of these that stand out ‘Nowhere’ by Curve, which is possibly one of the best tracks that they have ever produced. They sound sinister, angry and Toni Halliday vocal is more menacing than ever on it. The other one is ‘I Have the Moon’ by the much missed and loved Lush – and this may be the albums highpoint, a tremendously dreamy gorgeous song that is relaxing and a genuine chill down the spine moment.

mp3 : Lush – I Have The Moon

You also get a rare James track (saying that I gave up on James after ‘Whiplash’ so it might not be that rare) called ‘Thursday Treatments’ which is an instrumental track. Its bland. Really bland. They are trying to sound like Aphex Twin but end up sounding like the music I expect to be played in Japanese lifts. Seriously this is why I gave up on James. Twenty years ago I would have bought this solely for the fact it had a James track on it and would have justified its uselessness by calling it ‘Experimental’. I don’t know why but this song has angered me so much but I have just punched a cuddly toy owl.

mp3 : James – Thursday Treatments

So that is ‘Nowhere’ I am half tempted to give the film a spin now but I have just read that it has Ryan Philippe in it, so know it will be waste of time, a man that is to acting what I am to flying helicopters – bizarrely it also has Gibby Haynes from the Butthole Surfers in it, still no reason to watch it though.

That was Number 18, on the list, what’s next guys…?

S-WC

New Order

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #28 : NEW ORDER (2)

The thing is….I don’t care if anyone wants to come on and offer up their take on a singer or band featured previously in what is proving to be an incredibly popular series. The e-mails have been coming in thick and fast from all corners of the globe and there is a small backlog of posts building up but as far as I’m concerned that’s perfectly acceptable.

I’ve always said this blog is only as good as the contributions from readers whether that be via comments or guest postings and the quality and depth of stuff in this series really has invigorated the whole process.

Today’s contribution has come in from Sweden courtesy of Martin Elliot….

In a few weeks I’m off to see Peter Hook & The Light playing New Order and Joy Division, and the other week I got my ticket to the New Order show in Stockholm on November 8 – I just had to give this a go. Following JC’s limitations to tracks that I have (or have had) on vinyl limits the album a bit, bit I guess also made it possible as many tracks just didn’t fulfill the criteria. Considering the length of the tracks in reality this would be a 2 LP set, but I made it into a very long LP.

A1. Blue Monday 12″

The track that defined New Order as a band on their own merits, not the continuation of Joy Division. Don’t get me wrong, I love JD – maybe even more today than 1980, but Blue Monday made NO into the fantastic band they still are. There is no way I could start a NO compilation but here, the line that marked the before and after.

A2. 1963 (12″ b-side)

The lyrics always concerns me, what happened that day 1963? Brilliant.

A3. Round & Remix (Kevin Saunderson club mix 12″)

New Order goes to Detroit, the worn down industrial cities works just perfect together. Can’t stop dancing.

A4. Regret (Sabres Slow’n’Low 12″)

As many I regard Technique as the best NO album, but in my book Republic is pretty close as a consistent album. This version of Regret by Sabres is pure beauty.

A5. Age of Consent (LP version)

I think JC said it, it just had to make a fantastic end to the a-side – not start it.

B1. True Dub (12″ b-side of the remix 12″)

Could be my all time favorite NO remix, runs just over 10 minutes and I always wish it would go on. Dance ecstasy.

B2. Someone Like You (Gabriel & Dresden Voco-Tech dub 2×12″ UK promo)

Another 10+ minutes mix, another magic dance track.

B3. World (The Price Of Love) (Brothers In Rhythm 12″)

Could be my all time favorite NO remix, runs just over 8 minutes and I always wish it would go on. Dance ecstasy. Wait, didn’t I just write those words…

B4. The Perfect Kiss (12″)

They did put out a lot of brilliant 12″ singles, didn’t they? Like this.

B5. Ceremony (original 12″)

A beautiful closing track, a beautiful farewell to Ian.

As many of the readers of this blog I remember when the early buyers of an album were treated with a bonus 12″ or EP, so I give you a limited edition bonus record – a single sided 12″ with the full 17 minutes version of Elegia. Because I still love Joy Division.

Hit me…

Martin

mp3 : New Order – Blue Monday
mp3 : New Order – 1963
mp3 : New Order – Round & Round (KS club mix)
mp3 : New Order – Regret (Sabres Slow n Low)
mp3 : New Order – Age Of Consent
mp3 : New Order – True Dub
mp3 : New Order – Someone Like You (GD Vocotech dub)
mp3 : New Order – World (Brothers in Rhythm)
mp3 : New Order – The Perfect Kiss (12″)
mp3 : New Order – Ceremony
mp3 : New Order – Elegia (extended)

Enjoy.