THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT….

The Return of the Box (3)

This week some more alt rock from the States and one that I think JC may have featured a few weeks back.

Hum – You’d Prefer An Astronaut

Hum originate from Illinois and are an alt rock band perhaps best known for the song Stars which achieved a lot of radio play on the American alternative stations. They released four albums between 1989 and 2000 when the split, and this their third was their most commercial successful, although saying it hardly set the world alight. Hum sound a lot like a previously mentioned band Superchunk and have that slowed down slacker feel to their music. The album is pretty good, with ‘Stars’ and ‘The Pod’ being the stand out records on it. This was I think the only one of their four albums that was released over here, it came out on Dedicated records, who at the time in 1995, also housed Spiritualized, which brings up nicely my connection to this band.

Amazingly in 1995 I was (briefly) a member of Hum, now don’t search Wikipedia because it isn’t there –and here’s why. I was sent to interview Spiritualized (I say sent, I kind of begged like a hungry dog) on tour in London, and Hum were the support band. When I arrived at the venue Hum were sound checking. The guitarist at the time, the wonderfully named Tim Lash was half way through when his manager told him that there was a phone call for him. I had been sitting watching the soundcheck, and had,I thought slyly pinched a can of Red Stripe from their rider, which I was drinking at the side of the stage. The singer came over and said, “hey if you can drink our beer, you can help sound check our songs”. So for roughly six minutes I got on stage and strummed a guitar with Hum. Tim Lash came back and stood and watched and then said dryly, “I hope your interview skills are better” and then before they had the chance to sack me I said “You know guys, this just isn’t working, our musical tastes are just too different” I quit the band and claimed musical differences.

mp3 : Hum – Stars

Engine 88 – ‘Clean Your Room’

Engine 88 were from San Francisco and were doing the rounds in the 1990s. They released three albums, two of these were released on Caroline Records, who kind of made a habit of releasing a lot of albums in the mid 90s that sounded almost identical. Something which I think I called frat boy punk at the time. By this the records were largely punk in the vein of Green Day played by white kids with guitars, with spiky haircuts and a range of stupid gurning faces for the cameras. Engine 88 are not really that different, they cite Fugazi, Nirvana and the Breeders as their influences but really this is Green Day or Rancid by numbers. It’s not terrible though. You kind of feel that around the time there were releasing records there was a bit of frenzy going on as labels looked for bands like Green Day to sign.

Clean Your Room was the debut album by Engine 88 and featured at least two fairly decent singles, Funny Car and Twenty both of which failed to chart in the UK (they were only released on 7” though). The band have now split and gone on their separate missions, and I will list these because its kind of interesting. The singer is now in a soft rock band that sound too much like Counting Crows for my liking, the guitarist is in a Pretenders Covers Band (obviously, why wouldn’t you), the bassist teaches martial arts to kids and the drummer runs a video store with the manager of Green Day. Punk really is not dead.

mp3 : Engine 88 – Funny Car

Marion – Lets All Go Together

JC may have posted this a few weeks ago on his excellent piece on Marion. Assuming he did, I will just add this. I loved Marion and they didn’t get anywhere near the success they deserved. They were perhaps the one band who might have justified the ‘New Smiths’ tag that was lumped on a lot of bands in the 90s. Lets All Go Together was the fourth record off their debut album The World and Body and you know its kind of ace.

mp3 : Marion – Let’s All Go Together

S-WC

Violent Femmes

BLUE JEANS AND CHINOS; COKE PEPSI AND OREOS (Part 9)

A few weeks back I featured Violent Femmes take on Do You Really Want To Hurt Me? while many moons ago over on the old blog I had an in-depth look at the band’s self-titled debut LP. It struck me when reading S-WC’s contribution from yesterday, and the fact that he is 11 years and 363 days younger than me, that many readers may have missed out on the greatest band to ever come out of Milwaukee, Wisconsin given that their best and most enduring material dates back to the early-mid 80s when the likes of S-WC and his peers were maybe just too young to pick up on bands that never had the slightest hope of making it onto Top of The Pops.

They began life as a busking trio consisting of Gordon Gano (vocals and guitar), Brian Ritchie (bass) and Victor DeLorenzo (drums/percussion) in their home town. Legend has it that in August 1981, the late James Honeyman-Scott of The Pretenders caught them performing on the day his band were playing a show in Milwaukee and invited the trio to open for them. This led to a fair bit of publicity and requests to open for other bands touring the USA and before you know it their records were coming out via Warner Bros. The American Dream in full swing……

The debut LP was released in April 1983. It is the ultimate definition of a slow-burner as it took eight years to be certified platinum, by which time the band had released 5 albums and 9 singles, none of which charted in any meaningful way, although the critical acclaim and the fact that they always put on an entertaining live show meant that they had a fair-sized fan base, particularly in the UK and Australia.

The music at its best has an acoustic bent blending pop, country and folk with many of the songs reflecting on how life doesn’t always turn out as planned. By 1992, the band had gotten a bit tired and briefly split-up reforming again after about 15 months but with Guy Hoffman coming in on drums. This incarnation of the band was very busy throughout the remainder of the decade on the road and in the studio with a further three LPs. It was during this period that the band perhaps got their biggest ever exposure when long-time fan John Cusack had featured the band’s songs in the cult movie Gross Point Blank.

This led to a newer younger fanbase discovering Violent Femmes and so it was no surprise that 20 years on from the release of that amazing debut LP that plans were made to re-release it with a whole number of extras of demo versions, non-LP singles from the period and live tracks. Unlike many such re-issue editions, this didn’t in the slightest detract from the quality.

There was a further fall-out in 2009 when their most famous and enduring song, Blister in The Sun, was licensed for use in a TV ad in the USA. The fact that it was used to promote a burger chain particularly infuriated Brian Ritchie and he attacked Gordon Gano, who ironically is a vegetarian, for putting the band in a situation where this could happen. The band broke-up…

It looked as if that would be it, but in 2013 news came that they were getting back together again in 2013 to promote the 30th Anniversary of the debut LP. Some of you might think that’s just taking nostalgia too far, but believe me, this debut LP is one of the best records ever released and fully deserves to be acknowledged by its makers in every possible way. But in one last surprise, it was revealed that Victor DeLorenzo was not going to be part of the plans, and his place behind the drum kit was taken by Brian Viglione of the Dresden Dolls.

The band is still going strong and tomorrow night are playing here in the UK in London before appearing at a series of folk/roots/blues festivals across North America in the summer.

Here’s one track from each of the first five LPs plus a live track taken from a 1999 acoustic tour of their home state:-

mp3 : Violent Femmes – Blister In The Sun
mp3 : Violent Femmes – Country Death Song
mp3 : Violent Femmes – Special
mp3 : Violent Femmes – Lies
mp3 : Violent Femmes – American Music
mp3 : Violent Femmes – Prove My Love (live)

Enjoy

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 15)

The second single taken from Kill Uncle was, at the time, the lowest charting single in the solo career, hitting only #33 in April 1991.

And being honest, that’s about all it deserved.

The b-sides are what make this single a bit more interesting, with one being his take on one of the most famous songs ever written by Paul Weller, while the other has a drum pattern that for some reason always reminds me of London by The Smiths.

mp3 : Morrissey – Sing Your Life
mp3 : Morrissey – That’s Entertainment
mp3 : Morrissey – The Loop

A few years back during a live show at the Edinburgh Playhouse, the audience was treated to a version of The Loop that I thought was one of the highlights of the night thanks to the harder and less refined edge that his backing band brings to all the Smiths-era and early Morrissey songs. It doesn’t often work (and if you want proof, track down their live butchering of This Charming Man), but for some reason it did on this.

Great haircut in the sleeve photo which was taken by Pennie Smith.

Enjoy.

Adam Stafford, Rick Redbeard

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 96)

This is the single which should have featured last week but I had filed it away in the wrong place and didn’t have time to find it in time.

It was released in June 2012 on a small Edinburgh based label called Gerry Loves Records. It has a song on one side by Rick Redbeard and a song on the other side by Adam Stafford.

It was my favourite single of 2012 but I never ever featured it on the old blog. The simple reason is that the single was released only on vinyl (and mostly by mail order) in a very small quantity – 300 in total – and despite it being utterly brilliant it never quite sold out and while that was the case I never wanted to make the songs available.

But it’s now just shy of two years since the single was released and I’m guessing that anyone who was desperate to get a copy will have one by now.

mp3 : Rick Redbeard – Now We’re Dancing
mp3 : Adam Stafford – Vanishing Tanks

I know these won’t be everybody’s cup of Darjeeling but I am incredibly fond of both songs and indeed just about all of the output these two unique and very talented artists have released over the years.

I mentioned a couple of weeks pack in my apology posting that I had been to a number of great gigs and events this year but had been too lazy/tired to write about them. One such event was The Duke Street Expo at which Rick and Adam both performed. Here’s the full details of the line-up that Saturday afternoon and evening:-

http://www.eastendsocial.com/event/duke-street-expo/

While here’s a review from one of Scotland’s leading broadsheet newspapers:-

The Commonwealth-funded East End Social continued to shine a light on a neglected area of Glasgow with its most ambitious and community-spirited event to date – a seamless (and sunny) all-day festival of live music, comprising two ticketed gigs in churches plus a steady stream of free pop-up performances in unlikely venues along a bustling strip of Duke Street.

The Duke Street Expo – Duke Street, Glasgow

* * * *

Roll up for acoustic troubadours in ladies’ boutiques, easy jazz listening in charity shops and shape note singing, guitar and vocal loops and complimentary pakora on the patio of an Indian restaurant. “I’ve never seen the street this busy,” commented one impressed local.

Rapper Kobi Onyame channelled the good feeling through his set at the Everlasting Arms Church, while Rick Redbeard, aka Phantom Band frontman Rick Anthony, provided a healing listening experience.

Admiral Fallow were the headline draw here, but frontman Louis Abbott and co-vocalist Sarah Hayes also performed more intimate solo shows, the latter delivering a suitably fragrant set of folk covers in the local florists – with a single red rose across her keyboard.

As the afternoon wore on, the music got louder and the bijou venues got busier and sweatier. There was risk of a spritz or even a close shave when David McGregor of Kid Canaveral packed them in around the customers at Urban Funk gentleman’s barber shop. Meals were passed over the heads of the crowd at Dennistoun Bar-B-Que as hip-hoppers Hector Bizerk drummed up some festival spirit. Thankfully, the tattooists at Electric Artz were safely wielding their needles in the back room while punk power trio Ex-Wives played the most thunderous set of the day.

The evening concert at Dennistoun New Parish Church was a gentler affair, featuring three sublime voices. Siobhan Wilson, backed by instrumentalist Tommy Reilly, tempered the purity of her vocals with a kittenish edge and deceptive charisma. Like Wilson, Hot Chip frontman Alexis Taylor favoured a mostly sparing backing of beats, effects and guitar for his solo material, allowing his reedy, plaintive voice to work its understated magic.

King Cresote had all but knackered his vocal cords singing in the pub earlier, but with a bit of echo applied to the upper  notes, he sounded his usual affecting self, rounding off this grand day out with a ramshackle, but lovable, set encompassing old and new songs, some mischievous baiting of the Yes vote and a self-styled cabaret foray into the crowd.

I’m lucky enough to be helping to deliver the East End Social through what I do in my daytime job and I can honestly say I haven’t had as much fun at a music event in years as I did on that day. I wasn’t alone….have a look at what was said across Twitter as things unfolded.

https://twitter.com/hashtag/eastendsocial?src=hash

Loads of great photos too…..I can be spotted in the one of Adam Stafford performing in the patio of the Indian Restuarant….the fat, baldy bloke in blue and white hooped indie style t-shirt!!

Enjoy!!

Bodines

ONE OF THE BEST SONGS FROM THE C86 ERA

The Bodines are no more than a small footnote in musical history, but they did write and record one of the best indie-pop singles of the 80s.

They were a four-piece band from Glossop, a town fairly close to Manchester and given they emerged in 1985, it is probably fair to say that The Smiths were amongst their inspirations.

Alan McGhee took a shine to them and signed them to Creation for whom they released three singles on a 12-month period before they then rather bizarrely signed to Magnet Records, a UK label which was best known for middle-of-the road chart pop acts – although it should be said that Magnet were making an effort to find an indie act with the capability to cross over as The Bodines were one of a number who signed to the label in the mid-80s.

Whatever hopes the band and the label might have had were quickly dashed as two singles and one LP sold in miserably low amounts leading to the inevitable parting of the ways by late 1987. They reformed two years later (no doubt inspired by the fact that a number of their C86 contemporaries were enjoying a modicum of success) but one single on a local Manchester label later it was all over yet again.

I suppose it must have been difficult when you write something as majestic as this and nothing else comes close to matching it:-

mp3 : The Bodines – Therese

Enjoy

Smiths

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #1: THE SMITHS

The first of a new series.

It’s inspired in part by the fact that a framed limited edition copy of the above print, signed by the photographer, hangs directly above the space in my house where I have the PC and where I try my best to come up with entertaining words for this blog. It was given to me a year ago yesterday as a 50th birthday present by a dear friend and occasional contributor to the old blog, Mr John Greer.

It’s strange that while The Smiths remain my all time favourite band, I don’t write about them all that much these days, albeit there is a regular series on Morrissey being re-used as filler for posts on Sundays. I thought I’d address the situation by featuring the band in the first of what will be a very occasional series in which I take one of my favourite bands or singers and list what I think would make the idea ‘Best of’ album with a few words on why. The only proviso is that I’m going to do it as a proper old-fashioned LP…10 tracks in total with an A-side and a B-side and it’s got to hang together like a proper LP and not just a collection of greatest hits. Without further ado, here’s my go at The Smiths:-

Side A

1. The Queen Is Dead (Original Unedited Version)
2. Still Ill
3. How Soon Is Now?
4. Rubber Ring
5. Asleep

Side B

1. The Headmaster Ritual
2. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
3. Accept Yourself
4. Bigmouth Strikes Again
5. There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

It’s taken about three hours of humming and hawing and numerous changes of mind before I settled on the above. There are loads of songs that I can’t believe didn’t make the final cut which may well invite ridicule from other fans. But the logic is:-

1. The opening track is where any myth that The Smiths were just a singer and guitarist augmented by two session musicians is nailed once and for all….especially on this version with its extra 70 seconds or so of pulsating drums, bass and wah-wah guitar work

2. Self-deprecating and joyous; and impossible not to dance to.

3. Pride of place as the centrepiece of the all-important opening side of the album.

4. The band were better than most at recording something which, on the first few listens, sounded disposable and throwaway and yet with the passing of time revealed itself as something special. Rubber Ring is a tremendous example of this and perfectly complements what had come just before it on this imaginary LP

5. Because Asleep has to follow Rubber Ring. It is the law. And besides it’s time to show the band didn’t need guitars to be very special.

6. If the band had never written and recorded The Queen Is Dead then this was a stick-on to open the LP

7. Every LP recorded by The Smiths had its share of tear-jerking ballads. This is the one I’ve chosen, after much deliberation.

8. An early song thrown away on a 12″ b-side that has more than stood the test of time and long been a personal favourite

9. The song that marked the comeback after 18 months inactivity. It proved they still had it…and a joyous single that deserved to reach #1

10. It’s not a personal favourite but I can’t think of a better way to have a one-off record by the band beautifully fade out and leaving the listener wanting to pick up the vinyl, turn it over and start all over again.

mp3 : The Smiths – The Queen Is Dead (Original Unedited Version)
mp3 : The Smiths – Still Ill
mp3 : The Smiths – How Soon Is Now?
mp3 : The Smiths – Rubber Ring/Asleep
mp3 : The Smiths – The Headmaster Ritual
mp3 : The Smiths – Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me
mp3 : The Smiths – Accept Yourself
mp3 : The Smiths – Bigmouth Strikes Again
mp3 : The Smiths – There Is A Light That Never Goes Out

That was incredibly difficult to do.

Baz Luhrmann

ADVICE, LIKE YOUTH, PROBABLY WASTED ON THE YOUNG

From the old blog 2 years ago today:-

From wiki:-

Mary Schmich’s “Advice, like youth, probably just wasted on the young” was published in the Chicago Tribune as a column on June 1, 1997. In her introduction to the column, she described it as the commencement speech she would give if she were asked to give one.

The column soon became the subject of an urban legend, in which it was alleged to be an MIT commencement speech given by author Kurt Vonnegut in that same year. Despite a follow-up article by Schmich on August 3, 1997, in which she referred to the “lawless swamp of cyberspace” that had made her and Kurt Vonnegut “one”, by 1999 the falsely attributed story was widespread.

Schmich’s column, in time, was well-received by Vonnegut. He told the New York Times, “What she wrote was funny, wise and charming, so I would have been proud had the words been mine.”

The essay was used in its entirety by Australian film director Baz Luhrmann (pictured above) on his 1998 album Something for Everybody, as “Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen)”. The song sampled Luhrmann’s remixed version of the song “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)” by Rozalla. Subsequently released as a single, the song opened with the words “Ladies and Gentlemen of the Class of ’99”.

Luhrmann explains that Anton Monsted, Josh Abrahams and he were working on the remix when Monsted received an email with the supposed Vonnegut speech. They decided to use it but were doubtful of getting through to Vonnegut for permission before their deadline, which was only one or two days away. While searching the internet for contact information they came upon the “Sunscreen Controversy” and discovered that Schmich was the actual author. They emailed her and, with her permission, recorded the song the next day.

The song features a spoken-word track set over a mellow backing track. The “Wear Sunscreen” speech is narrated by Australian voice actor Lee Perry. The backing is the choral version of “Everybody’s Free (To Feel Good)”, a 1991 song by Rozalla, used in the film William Shakespeare’s Romeo + Juliet. The chorus, also from “Everybody’s Free”, is sung by Quindon Tarver.

The song was largely obscure until Aaron Scofield, a producer in Phoenix, Arizona, edited the original 12″ version into a segment of a syndicated radio show called ‘Modern Mix’. This show played many stations in the United States. In Portland, Oregon – where ‘Modern Mix’ played on KNRK — listeners began requesting the track. KNRK Program Director Mark Hamilton edited the song for time and began playing it regularly. He distributed the song to other PDs that he networked with and the song exploded in the US.

The song was a worldwide hit, reaching number 45 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States, and number one in the United Kingdom and Ireland. I for one, am often moved by the words and the music.

And as I turn 51 years of age this very day and as my body more and more reminds me that I am not the indestructable force I once believed I was, it seems an appropriate time to again share the song with you.

mp3 : Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) (edit)
mp3 : Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) (Mix)
mp3 : Baz Luhrmann – Everybody’s Free (To Wear Sunscreen) (geographic’s factor 15+ mix)

Listen and weep….

Or rave.

Smashing Pumpkins

FROM THE G41 CORRESPONDENT……

You’ll have spotted that S-WC has switched days this week, with yesterday not only marking his contribution to T(n)VV but also his 39th birthday and the official launch of his own blog, When You Can’t Remember Anything.

He’s opened up proceedings with a cracking piece of writing about the frustrations of not quite being 18 years old and thus being denied entry into any decent local pubs and the music he’s associated with that tale comes from Smashing Pumpkins and in particular their 1992 LP Siamese Dream.

It’s an LP I’ve a lot of time for…indeed the band are one of my guilty secrets. I thoroughly enjoyed them at their creative and critical peak in the 90s and in fact going to see them in Glasgow on the Mellon Collie tour marks the last time I ever threw myself with gay abandon into a mosh pit – I came out a bit battered, bruised and hard of hearing with an acceptance that having long passed into my 30s I had no chance of surviving with the young pups down the front anymore.

I’ve pulled out one of the singles from Siamese Dream for your enjoyment today.

Disarm was the third 45 lifted from the LP and rather unusually, it outsold the two earlier singles, and in reaching #11 in the UK charts was at that point in time their highest chart position for a single.

The other thing worth noting is that the single did well despite a lack of airplay on BBC Radio and an outright ban on a Top of the Pops appearance as there was unease about the lyric ‘cut that little child’.

It was, like many others of that era, released in multi-formats including 7″ vinyl and 2 x CDs. I’ve one of the CDs in the collection which, in addition to the single also has two cover versions from giants of the 70s rock industry – Fleetwood Mac and Thin Lizzy:-

mp3 : Smashing Pumpkins – Disarm
mp3 : Smashing Pumpkins – Landslide
mp3 : Smashing Pumpkins – Dancing In The Moonlight

The latter is a particularly effective and lovely cover, taking a soft rock/pop song and turning into a poignant and heartfelt ballad for a lonely teenager.

Enjoy

A, Number One Cup, Schtum

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT (On his 39th birthday too)

This week two bands with remarkably stupid band names and one kind of lost classic

Let’s not be coy here, Schtum is a silly band name.

Formed in Derry, Ireland, Schtum were a four piece that played a rocky kind of indie that was probably labelled ‘post grunge’ when it first came out. This is perhaps slightly off kilter when describing their sound. They sound like an Irish Fugazi, and that people is no bad thing at all.

Like many of the bands that have been featured in the Box series, this single represents, by far, this bands best moment of music. I am going to stick my neck out and say that this is the best six minutes of music to ever come out of Derry.

Schtum revolved around the vocal talents of one Christian O’Neill. They had a minor hit in the 90s with the song ‘Skydiver’ and ‘Big Big City’ was the follow up and is a much better song. The problem with it that at just under six minutes long it was unlikely to ever get much radio play. A shame because I think this would have done quite well had popular radio at the time had the opportunity to play it. Certainly after a couple of reminder plays here this morning, I’ve been humming this ever since.

It reminds me of Whipping Boy at their angriest, that is probably the Irish accent in the vocals though. It is a sneering blast, an ode to a home town, warts and all, catchy, angry, noisy, and just ever so slightly better than brilliant.

mp3 : Schtum – Big Big City

When I pick CDs out of this box, if they are good they go in the loft, if they are bad they go in the charity shop bin at the end of the road. So despite Schtum having one of rock stupidest names, I have been able to ask myself this morning ‘Do you want to keep Schtum?’ to which the answer has to be ‘Yes’. For this is one hell of a single.

The one thing worse than the awful name is the joke name, so ladies and gents, here are a band called A. You imagine then guffawing behind the poor sap in HMV who places CDs onto the shelves, s/he finds the little grey border thing with ‘A’ written on it and s/he then gets confused because the band is called A. Oh the hours of laughing that must have caused.

A are a punky rock band, who, after playing as Grand Designs (a much better name), changed their name in1993. They originally were a prog rock band but hailing from punk rocks second home of Suffolk public attention demanded that they changed tact to sound more like Green Day, which they manage not to do, but do manage to sound like a more shouty less radio friendly Busted. Considering that nowadays singer Jason Perry is now writing songs with Busted’s and winner of ‘I’m Celebrity Give Me a Low Grade TV Series to Present’ Matt Willis, this is not that surprising.

mp3 : A – 5 In The Morning

Minor celebrity fact fans will like this bit, the original bassist in the band was a chap called Stevie Swindon, he left the band quite early on and was replaced by a chap called Daniel P Carter. Carter now presents the Radio 1 Rock Show. If that ever comes up in a pub quiz, you are almost certainly drinking in the wrong pubs.

So we come to the lost classic. This is a great record by a band that I know very little about. If I was asked to name other songs by Number One Cup I wouldn’t be able to. Wikipedia tells me that they were from Chicago and the singer was a guy called Seth Cohen. I also found out that the band were forced into a hiatus in 1998 when Cohen broke his neck playing hockey, this didn’t surprise me as hockey is bloody dangerous, twenty people running around a field armed with wooden bats and a bloody hard ball.

mp3 : Number One Cup – Divebomb

Number One Cup fit in nicely with one of themes running through this box, alt rock from America, they sound like Superchunk, Dinosaur Jr, Buffalo Tom and all those other bands from the mid 90s that arrived on our shores in a post Nirvana wave. Divebomb was a minor hit and was very popular in the indie clubs in the mid 90s, the NME dubbed it a strong contender for Single of The Year, I’ve just checked their archive it didn’t make the Top 50, it should have when you consider that Back For Good by Take That was at Number 47 and Alanis Morrisette at 30. File under ‘Lost Classic’. Oh and the B Side includes a Cover Version, albeit a rather quirky one, so that is this weeks obligatory cover version track.

mp3 : Number One Cup – Joe The Lion

One last thing, from around today, this website http://wycranything.wordpress.com might be up and running. I’ve decided to give blogging a go properly. Posts will include the following: –

Bands that are Animals (dubbed the Animal Collective)

Bands that are Places (dubbed A Place With a Name)

And a series called 40 Albums YOU should hear before I am 40 (which is exactly a year from today).

I hope that I can keep this blogging lark up.

Thanks for reading.

S-WC

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 14)

One of his best but most neglected solo singles.

It was the third to be taken from the much derided LP Maladjusted and the follow-up to the rather appalling Roy’s Keen (as featured before in this series).

mp3 : Morrissey – Satan Rejected My Soul
mp3 : Morrissey – Now I Am A Was
mp3 : Morrissey – This Is Not Your Country

The single was in fact the closing track on the LP. Satan Rejected My Soul is, without question, one of the greatest song titles ever dreamt-up with the bonus of a catchy, sing-a-long tune to boot. It really was much much more deserving than the lowly #39 position in the chart and IMHO if this had been the lead-off single prior to the release of Maladjusted, it would have been a Top Ten hit, and the subsequent reviews of the LP would have been kinder.

Now I Am A Was really felt as if it was a farewell song from the great man, with its lyric referring to him starting at the top and working his way down…..while This Is Not Your Country is one of the few overtly political songs in his cannon with its observations on life in Northern Ireland. In my humble opinion, one of the best things he has ever written in his whole career…..

Released in December 1997 – it would be almost 7 years before Morrissey released his next single.

Trivia fact. The 7″ version did not include This Is Not Your Country, but a limited number of sleeves were printed saying that it did. I saw the misprint on sale on-line the other day for £60.

Happy Listening.

Orange Juice

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE…….

……..will return next week. There’s a piece of plastic that should be getting featured this week but I seemed to have filed it away in the wrong place and it will take a bit of time to find it and convert the vinyl to a new mp3 (a previous conversion to mp3 is unsatisfactory as I missed the first few seconds on one of the two tracks).

In the meantime, here’s a John Peel Session to enjoy:-

mp3 : Orange Juice – Dying Day
mp3 : Orange Juice – Holiday Hymn
mp3 : Orange Juice – Three Cheers For Our Side
mp3 : Orange Juice – Blokes on 45

Recorded on 3 August 1981 and broadcast seven days later. The last of these tracks is very silly indeed…..

Boomtown Rats

A BAND TONY WILSON JUST NEVER RATED

The great man once said in an interview not long before he died:-

“I get a lot of credit for the 42 bands I put on television for the first time – but, to my real credit, only I know the 533 bands I didn’t put on television. I was right about every single one of them, including The Boomtown Rats.”

It is true to say that The Boomtown Rats were a band who struck lucky when punk/new wave came to the fore for they found some fame and the fortune on the back of the movement despite not really ever being accepted by the cognoscenti as being a part of such scenes. Some of their early singles did however, have a new wave feel thanks to them being raw, fast and a bit shouty. But then again how could it really be new wave if there was a big reliance on a saxophone?

The tail end of 78 and early 79 was when the band went really big thanks to consecutive #1 singles with Rat Trap and I Don’t Like Mondays, both of which (particularly the latter) you will still hear on many retro radio stations the world over. I’ll admit to quite liking the band and they were one of the first acts I saw when I started going to gigs in 1979, although in this case it was as much to do with going along to the Glasgow Apollo as a favour to a mate.

It was however, one of the more memorable of my early concert-going experiences in as far that 35 years on much I can recall more detail from it than most – mainly because the Boomtown Rats had the idea that a gig should be more than just taking to the stage and playing the songs….there was a decent set built to accommodate the band, the stage was well-lit and the sound, surprisingly for a new wave band, was exceptionally good.

You can look up wiki if you want to know more in terms of the discography, the break-up and the 21st century comeback of sorts with a knight of the realm now on lead vocals. I’ll just leave you with two of the early rawer singles that I pogoed to in the crowd when I was just 16 years old:-

mp3 : The Boomtown Rats – Lookin After No.1
mp3 : The Boomtown Rats – She’s So Modern

Enjoy

Paddy McAloon

THE 80s PRODUCTION MASTERPIECE MINUS THE PRODUCTION IS STILL A MASTERPIECE

There are very few music fans of my generation who won’t admit to having a soft spot for Steve McQueen, the majestic LP released by Prefab Sprout back in 1985. It was eleven tracks of near perfection, thanks in part to the quality of the songs but there were also many sublime touches brought to the party by producer Thomas Dolby.

There were a load of raised eyebrows when, more than 20 years later, it was announced that the LP would not only undergo a remastering exercise at the hand of its original producer but that Paddy McAloon was going to enter into a studio and record new acoustic versions of what were regarded as the eight strongest, most-enduring and popular tracks for inclusion as a bonus CD. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in thinking it was no more than a cynical and cheap way of making fans part with their cash for the LP for a third time, having bought the vinyl in the 80s, the CD in the 90s and now this new version in the 00s. After all how do you improve upon near perfection?

And yet, as the notes in the accompanying booklet points out, “The 80s production masterpiece minus the production is still a masterpiece.”

Paddy McAloon is famed for being a perfectionist but there is no way I would have expected that the time taken to record the eight acoustic versions would be in excess of that taken to originally record the LP. Those close to the process think it took three times as long. It’s therefore clear that this wasn’t a job where he went in and came back out in one take – there was clearly an attempt a number of different arrangements, musically and vocally, before determining which approach worked best on each song. Some are just voice and guitar, others have keyboards and others have backing and multi-tracked vocals.

Paddy was 27 years of age when he first recorded the songs – by the time he went back into the studio for the acoustic versions he was in his very late 40s and his voice was deeper and richer. This alone would naturally change the way the songs would now sound. But he was also able to bring those many more years of experience, knowledge and songcraft to the recording process and so what he ends up giving us is something truly special and more than capable of being held up as a brand new LP rather than just re-recordings in an acoustic fashion.

There is no finer example of what I am trying to get at than with the hit single from the LP:-

mp3 : Paddy McAloon – When Love Breaks Down

But of all the re-recordings, this is the one that stands out most:-

mp3 : Paddy McAloon – Desire As

The original was chock-full of poignant keyboards and wonderfully fragile harmonies and an acceptable and very understated use of saxophone. This new version opens with some tremendous Roddy Frame-esque acoustic guitar work and leads to a surprisingly strong almost angry sounding and passionate vocal. It is a totally different song than that from 1985…and whisper it…..it’s even better.

Enjoy….and feel free to differ from the above opinions.

Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins, Tindersticks

THE MAGIC OF MUSIC

I’m sure most of you will be familiar with the memorable and imaginative video where Christopher Walken is sitting slumped and tired in a chair in the foyer of a hotel only to be shaken from his slumbers by the music that is Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim. Next thing you know he is tap-dancing and flying his way through the hotel with the biggest grin on his face….and then as the song ends he finds himself sitting back in his chair with the same tired look on his face as a few minutes earlier.

The tap-dancing and aerial acrobatics were of course all in his mind – it was his imagination running away as the magic of music took his mind off whatever had been troubling or tiring him and made him ecstatically happy for a few short minutes. If it wasn’t for my self-imposed policy of not posting anything from youtube I’d have it embedded at this juncture of this post.

The point is….I had my own Christopher Walken moment on the way to work yesterday.

I was sitting on the train yesterday morning, tired and worried a bit about how much I have on my plate just now and also still trying to think what to do next with the blog feeling grateful that S-WC had come up with the goods. I’ve the music on shuffle hoping that I might get inspired but all the songs seem to be stuff I’ve written about before or else aren’t all that worthy of spending time writing about.

Then….there’s a little bit of flamenco guitar that I know lasts precisely 56 seconds for it is the intro to a song which is one of my favourites from one of my favourite bands.

I smile.

And just like Christopher Walken, I am shaken from my slumbers. The next two and half minutes of music have me imagining that I am running up and down the crowded carriage grabbing fellow passengers and getting them to dance with me; that I am singing the lyrics at the top of my voice and that when the trumpet solo comes I should be blasting it out as the train staff put down their ticket checking machines and join in on percussion. Such is the power of this:-

mp3 : Tindersticks – Her

It’s from the band’s debut release – a double album – back in 1993. It’s just one of a number of stunning bits of music that Tindersticks recorded with their first six albums after which the band broke-up. The reformed line-up a few years later saw only around half of the members get together and while it’s been decent enough in places, the music since has seemed less special.

As Her bounced around my head I knew I had a blog piece ready to go with the Christopher Walken comparison. But one thing that was different is that as my happy song came to an end, the next track on random play began. The smile didn’t leave my face as it revealed itself as one of the greatest cover versions of all time and a track which was part of the recent Saturday singles series.

mp3 : Paul Quinn & Edwyn Collins – Pale Blue Eyes

I came to work feeling a lot better, switched on the PC and typed all the words you’ve just read.

Enjoy

Cable, Electronic, Heave

FROM THE SOUTH WEST CORRESPONDENT….

The Return of the Box

Some time ago, whilst sitting in a transport café just outside the drab Kent market town of Sittingbourne two friends and I set upon a challenge.

It was six in the morning, we hadn’t slept that much and we were awaiting our greasy spoon fry up, John (full English), me (veggie version, no egg) and Adrian (Mushroom, Egg, Tomatoes and Toast). We were talking about music, primarily New Order, and John likes to think of himself as a New Order oracle, he claimed right then and then to be able to list more singles and albums by the band along with Joy Division, Revenge, Monaco, The Other Two and Electronic than the rest of us.

We went to the counter and asked for three pencils and three sheets of paper, and we gave ourselves five minutes or until breakfast arrived, the winner got a free breakfast. Four minutes later breakfast arrived – so we put our pencils down, and ate up. Then we totted up the correct answers, I was last, in fact last by some distance, if it was Spiritualized, Spectrum and Spacemen 3 I would have won, but it wasn’t.

Adrian scored one more than John – and John demanded a recount and verification (at this point the truckers in the café were starting to get fed up with the manky students in the café disturbing their breakfasts). I was appointed judge and went through the lists –they were largely the same, both had missed the classic New Order single Run 2 which even I had got , but when it come to the end, Adrian had listed an Electronic single called For You and that was the difference between the two of them.

John sighed and said that he forgotten about it because it was rubbish. His grapes were sour all the way home. When we got home Adrian popped round my house and gave me this CD, he’d bought it in Woolworths two days previously for 49p – hadn’t even played it. I did play it, it’s not rubbish. It’s very pleasant indeed.

mp3 : Electronic – For You

‘For You’ was in fact the second single off of the second Electronic album, Raise the Pressure, an album which I have never heard. The single peaked at Number 16 in the UK Chart. It is well worth the price of a greasy fry up in a truckers café in Kent (about £2.99 in 1996).

———————————-

I remember getting this particular CD sent to me because it came with a promotional gun and me and my mate Chris drove around Maidstone taking pot shots at chavs with it all afternoon.

mp3 : Cable – Whisper Firing Line

Having re-read that sentence, I should make it clear – it was a water pistol, and not a very good one, as it leaked. The fun was spoiled when we squirted a big bloke and then got stuck in traffic, (Inbetweeners Bus Wankers Style) and he threatened to hit us.

Cable were from Derby and were big favourites of John Peel they released three albums in the late 90s and this was taken from their second album When Animals Attack.

They are by far the greatest band to have ever come out of Derby (come on name another one!) and probably the only one to have had their music feature on a Sprite advert (‘Freeze The Atlantic’). Whisper Firing Line is a good example of the kind of thing Cable did on each of their three albums, I’d recommend the first two Cable albums – I’ve not heard the third, but by and large, this is decent garage rock with a nod towards the punk rock of American labels such as Blast First and Dischord. The B Side comes with a nice little cover version of the Stevie Winwood song Can’t Find My Way Home which as it’s a cover version gets an obligatory posting.

mp3 : Cable – Can’t Find My Way Home

———————————————-

Getting a bit more obscure now, I can’t find much more out about Heave, I know that this single came from an album called Scaramanga which I remember being quite good, it has long since vanished from the shelves of my house though.

mp3 : Heave – Pig Pretty

They had an earlier single Suna which is terrific – kind of art rock in an Earl Brutus meets Wire kind of way (there was a cover of 12XU as the B Side). The band featured a female model and keyboardist Sharon Mew who later went on to be in Elastica. Heave I think split up around 1997.

That is it.

More next week folks

S-WC

PS from JC

This is about as close as we will be getting to a random shuffle series as S-WC digs into his long-lost box of CDs from back in the day, pulls them out three at a time and writes some fine words about each of them. I genuinely had no idea whan I did yesterday’s posting on Wire that his scheduled piece, which has been sitting unread in my inbox since 29 May, also mentioned that very fine band.

Just to say that S-WC will next week feature on the Monday, a day earlier than normal. Tune in and all will be revealed why…………

Wire

AN APOLOGY TO EACH AND EVERYONE OF YOU

Standards have been slipping badly in recent weeks.

There’s been too many stupid errors creeping in with one of the the worst examples being when I forgot to uploads the links to the tunes. Many of the posts have been lazy rehashes of old material and there’s barely been an original though shared with you in weeks. I could blame it on being busy at work or the fact that much of whatever little spare time I’ve had has been taken up with things away from the PC – for instance the shedload of great gigs I’ve been lucky enough to attend in recent weeks (something that is of relevance to this blog) while the weekend just passed was spent with a crowd of long-time mates playing golf and drinking till all hours in the same way we have doing at a weekend in June every year since 1989 (something that is of no relevance to this blog – but which you are going to hear a little bit about…).

I’ve just got home on Sunday evening and I’m dead beat. My powers of recovery from a weekend of golf combined with over-indulging in alcohol and getting very few hours of sleep in a strange bed are not what they used to be. I wanted so badly to come in and get inspired as I sat looking at the screen with my fingers poised above the keyboard. But nothing is coming. So you’ll need to make do with another old posting….from November 2009 as part of a series entitled The Class of 79:-

There’s just no way I could ever claim to have bought this back in 1979. I listened to John Peel occasionally, but not every night. And his was the only show that played any songs by Wire.

And although I became aware of them during my students days in the early 80s, I didn’t rush out and but any of their albums. Indeed, I think the first thing I ever owned was a John Peel Sessions CD released in the early 90s (and it was courtesy of a birthday or Xmas present from my amigo Jacques The Kipper)

But in recent times, with the records of old being repackaged and reissued, I’ve got a hold of all three of the albums that were released in the 70s and now realise just how important and special they were.

The band also released six singles in the 70s, of which this was the nearest to a hit, reaching #51 in January 1979:-

mp3 : Wire – Outdoor Miner
mp3 : Wire – Practice Makes Perfect

The single was actually a re-recorded and extended version of a song that had appeared on 1978 LP Chairs Missing.

And it is quite wonderful.

Morrissey

THE MOZ SINGLES (Part 13)

The second single taken from Your Arsenal surely contains one of the laziest ever Morrissey lyrics:-

You’re the one for me, fatty
You’re the one I really, really love
And I will stay
Promise you’ll say
If I’m in your way

All over Battersea
Some hope
and some despair

Repeated umpteen times with the occasional Buddy Holly impressions (a-hey) thrown in for padding.

It preceeded the album by three weeks and had me a bit worried about how it was all going to turn out. As it was, Fatty was one of the poorest tracks on the LP and was soon a candidate for frequent use of the skip button on the CD player.

Sometimes disappointing singles get rescued by decent tracks on the b-side, but sadly these efforts are quite forgettable.

mp3 : Morrissey – You’re The One For Me, Fatty
mp3 : Morrissey – Pashernate Love
mp3 : Morrissey – There Speaks A True Friend

At least the cover was a cracker…..another Linder Sterling photo taken at a concert in Chicago in 1991.

But my opinions weren’t shared by the general public….it was a single that climbed higher in the charts than any of those taken from Kill Uncle, hitting #19 in July 1992.

Happy Listening.

Rezillos

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 95)

From wiki:-

The Rezillos are a punk/new wave band formed in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1976. Although emerging at the same time as other bands in the punk rock movement, the Rezillos did not share the nihilism or social commentary of their contemporaries, but instead took a more light-hearted approach to their songs, preferring to describe themselves at the time as “a New Wave beat group”.

Their songs are heavily influenced by 1950s rock and roll, 1960s English beat music and garage rock, early 1970s glam rock, and recurring lyrical themes of science fiction and B movies, influences that mirrored those of US bands the Cramps and the B-52s who were starting out at the same time. The Rezillos’ biggest hit in their home country was the UK Top 20 single “Top of the Pops” in 1978, but they are best known outside the UK for their cover version of “Somebody’s Gonna Get Their Head Kicked In Tonight”, which featured on the soundtrack to Jackass: The Movie in 2002. Since the Rezillos recorded it, the song has been covered by other punk bands, including Youth Brigade and Murphy’s Law.

Released in July 1978, the Rezillos’ only studio album Can’t Stand the Rezillos is now considered a classic album of the first wave of British punk, but the group split up four months after its release, following internal arguments about their future direction.

After the Rezillos split the band’s guitarist and principal songwriter Jo Callis briefly joined a couple of unsuccessful Edinburgh post-punk groups, before being invited to join The Human League. He went on to co-write some of The Human League’s best known songs during their most successful period, including their biggest worldwide hit, “Don’t You Want Me”.

The Rezillos’ vocalists Eugene Reynolds and Fay Fife formed the Revillos, a group with an ever-changing line-up that continued where the Rezillos left off. The Revillos split up in 1985, briefly reforming in 1994 for a tour of Japan, and again in 1996 for a UK tour. In 2001 the Rezillos reformed after being invited to play at Edinburgh’s Hogmanay celebrations, and have continued to play live ever since, as well as releasing new singles occasionally.

And, straight from the cupboard full of vinyl, here’s the tremendous follow-up single to the big hit:-

mp3 : The Rezillos – Destination Venus
mp3 : The Rezillos – Mystery Action

Enjoy!!

Blur

A LONG WAY REMOVED FROM PARKLIFE

In 1993 and 1994 it was all a bit ‘cor blimey guv’ and catchy upbeat sing-a-long numbers driven along by the classic sounds made by a line-up consisting of singer, guitarist, bassist and drummer.

Things had changed a lot by 1997….

To be fair, Blur released a lot of great songs in 93 and 94, many of them being introspective and sad ballads, hat have aged a lot better than the likes of Parklife and Country House. And yes, it wasn’t always down to the use of the guitar-genius of Graham Coxon to make these songs memorable – some of their best and catchiest somgs used keyboards – e.g. Girls and Boys.

But very few fans were prepared for the self-titled 1997 LP. It sold less in the UK than more recent albums but sold far more in other countries. Blur and Britpop had parted forever….indeed their turning their back on the sound and movement that had brought them immense fame and fortune was the beginning of the end. That and it being endorsed by politicians.

I was thinking all this the other day when a stunning remix of one of the tracks on Blur came on the i-pod shuffle. The song that to me was their sign-off from Britpop. Something that I had not quite forgotten how good it was, but for the first time I was listening with a decent pair of headphones and I turned it up loud. Sorry it’s the usual shitty mp3 low-fi quality on offer. But you should get the drift:-

mp3 : Blur – Death Of A Party (12″ Death)

It’s taken from a Japanese CD called Bustin and Dronin’ although it may well be available elsewhere. As I said, it’s stunning…..it’s more than 7 minutes long ….it’s a mix by Adrian Sherwood and it’s miles from the poppy stuff – it’s almost reminiscent in places musically of Ghost Town – and it has a chorus Mozza would have been proud of:-

Another night
And I though well well
Go to another party
And hang myself
Gently on the shelf.

Feel free to sing along girls and boys.

PS : I make no apologies for this particular re-post from October 2012 as it features a cracking piece of music that might surprise those of you who normally have no time for the band.

D.C. Lee

DAMNING WITH FAINT PRAISE

Released in October 1985, See The Day by D.C. Lee sold more than 250,000 copies and climbed to #3 in the UK singles chart. This was at a time when The Style Council were at their most popular having enjoyed a run of hit singles and two top selling albums in Cafe Bleu and Our Favourite Shop.

D.C. Lee was an integral part of The Style Council, and indeed by 1985 was the partner and soon to be wife of Paul Weller – it was all a long way removed from her first brush with fame as a backing singer with Wham!

At the time, I wasn’t all that impressed with See The Day. I thought then that it was a lumpen, messy and over-produced ballad, and so it wasn’t a single that I set out to get a hold of. But I couldn’t resist paying 99p for it in a second hand shop a few years back and giving it a spin almost 25 years on to see if I had changed my mind. I hadn’t.

mp3 : D.C. Lee – See The Day

I’ve a feeling a lot of TSC fans bought this single because of the b-side. It featured all the other members of the band performing one of their most popular tunes – a song that had previously featured vocals by Tracey Thorn on the Cafe Bleu LP and then by Weller himself on the b-side to Long Hot Summer – and now it was the turn of Diane Catherine Sealy:-

mp3 : D.C. Lee – The Paris Match

Musically, it’s not far removed from the version which featured Weller on vocals, but overall, all it does is confirm for me that while she is a fine singer, she isn’t truly instinctive enough to stand out from the crowd. I’m probably damning her with faint praise to say that if she was waiting to be discovered nowadays, she would probably get a fair way on the X-Factor…..but not be the winner.

Incidentally…..time to help further nail a wee bit of an urban myth. I’ve read in some places that Paul Weller played drums on See The Day. He didn’t. Instead it was Paul Waller, who was a member of jazz-pop combo Animal Nightlife….

Enjoy.