THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

THEY WERE ON POSTCARD RECORDS (2)

It may have been based in Glasgow and is probably best known for Orange Juice. But the band which released the most material on Postcard actually came from Edinburgh:-

mp3 : Josef K – Radio Drill Time
mp3 : Josef K – Crazy To Exist
(Postcard 80-3 : September 1980)

mp3 : Josef K – It’s Kinda Funny
mp3 : Josef K – Final Request
(Postcard 80-5 : December 1980)

mp3 : Josef K – Sorry For Laughing
mp3 : Josef K – Revelation
(Released on Crepuscule under license
TWI023/Postcard 81-4 : April 1981)

mp3 : Josef K – Chance Meeting
mp3 : Josef K – Pictures (of Cindy)
(Postcard 81-5 : May 1981)

And of course, Josef K were the only act who ever had an LP released via the original Postcard label when The Only Fun In Town hit the shops in July 1981 with the catalogue number 81-7.

Uncategorized

THIS IS A PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT….WITH GUITARS!!!!!

“Born to the strains of ‘Chirpy Chirpy Cheep Cheep’, and with the hippies giving way to the glam rockers, a humble kid began his exploration of life with music in his blood, his head and his heart.

This is his story.”

That’s the synopsis of a brand new blog that comes VERY highly recommended on the basis of the first two posts alone. It’s a unique blog that begin with Lou Reed and then the following day gives you The Rubettes, The Bay City Rollers and The Wombles………..

But then again, The Robster is a unique blogger prepared to talk equally about the skeletons in his closet as about the cool music he’s enjoyed in a way that will be magnificently entertaining and educational.

Click here for the link and then bookmark the thing.

Four Tet, Iceage, Octopus, Radiohead, Suuns

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT..WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (20)

There is a tiny Scottish feeling to this weeks column.

Firstly, I have just read that every year more than 1000 people placed a bet this year that the football score East Fife 5 Forfar 4 will occur. This genuinely made my choke on my cereal. 5 -4 scorelines in football are rare – even rarer when two teams with names that sound slightly like the numbers play each other. If you ask me that is 1000 people with far too much time on their hands. Although I do imagine that if the scoreline does occur, the BBC would probably eat itself with excitement.

Secondly the CD of choice this week was from Octopus a band from Aberdeen who signed to Food Records (home of Blur and Jesus Jones) in the mid 90s.

They were a mid table indie band with a liking for big choruses. Sadly, when I put the CD in the machine it refused to play. Which is a shame because this is a belter of a record, I remember it well and always thought that it should have reached much higher in the charts than it did. When it came out, I had a guest reviewing the singles with me and after we listened to this, with its trumpet inspired chorus we had a small chat about the use of brass in singles and whether this was a good thing or not, we decided pretty much as long as they didn’t ruin the song it was ok (so you’d better but the bugle down down Mr Mumford). My guest reviewer loved this song (understandably) and described it memorably as ‘a brass blessed beauty rather than a trumpet troubled turd’. I gave him an extra pork pie for the wonder of his alliteration alone.

I’d loved to post this song but can’t post it, my only hope is that JC has it earmarked for his Scottish Single Series because your lives (well your ears at least) will be all the better for hearing it.

(JC adds…..I do have the track via one of those indie compilations that were all the rage in the Britpop era….and while S-WC is quick to sing its praises, I’m more inclined to say that it’s a very fine Oasis tribute.)

mp3 : Octopus – Your Smile

So instead of that I have done a random shuffle on my iPod (Classic 3rd Gen, 8830 songs) and will post the first three songs that come on. So first up we have: –

Oooh allow me a moment here ‘TUNE’ – ‘Arena’ – Suuns. Suuns are a Canadian band that sprang to our attention a few backs with their debut album ‘Zeroes QC’. This was to be was the standout track from that album. It has a kind of space rock feel to it as it whooshes along magically. ‘Zeroes QC’ comes highly recommended as well. They released a second album last year ‘Images du Futur’ which to be honest wasn’t as good.

mp3 : Suuns – Arena

Second song – my iPod is being kind to you all this morning ‘Coalition’ – Iceage. Iceage, are a Danish punk band, and they rock like bastards. Fiercely independent and with a strong fan based ethic they have released two albums quite quietly in the last couple of years, the second ‘You’re Nothing’ was an absolute treasure of a record, it’s all done and dusted in about 35 minutes but it leaves you breathless, great shouty, simple, spiky punk rock. They also sing occasionally in Danish which is a rare treat. If you like Iceage (and you should) I recommend you check out Metz (another great Canadian band) and Radkey who do similar things in a shouty manner.

mp3 : Iceage – Coalition

Finally, aah lovely, ‘Aerial’ – Four Tet – this is taken from last years ‘Beautiful Rewind’ album. I’ve said before that I love Four Tet and think that the brains behind it Kieron Hebden is a genius (NME people if you are reading – here is a Godlike Genius you should celebrate don’t waste your time with Blondie, you fools). Four Tet make beautiful music, rarely do they release a bad record. If you check out their website there are also regularly loads of free downloads of mixtapes (one just last week, an hour of free dance music) and other bits and pieces. If you are not familiar with Four Tet, the best place to start is ‘Rounds’ that is an album that deserves to sit in anyones Top 50 ever. Radiohead fans should check out their remix of Skttrbrain’ too.

mp3 : Four Tet – Aerial

See you next week hopefully with a CD that plays!

JC adds again……

That’s the first time any of those four bands have appeared on this or the previous blog, so thanks again to S-WC for broadening mine and maybe some of your horizons. I have previously featured that Radiohead remix that was mentioned:

mp3 : Radiohead – Skttrbrain (Four Text Remix)

Enjoy!!

Orange Juice, Postcard Records

THEY WERE ON POSTCARD RECORDS (1)

Postcard Records.

You might have heard of it. Founded at 185 West Princes Street, Glasgow by Alan Horne.

It had the motto ‘The Sound of Young Scotland’ while its logo was a cat banging a drum.

In April 1980, the first Postcard 45 was released. In August 1981, the eleventh and final Postcard 45 was released.

They are all going to feature this week and at the end I am going to try the impossible by ranking them in preference on the quality of just the A side of the single. Wish me luck.

mp3 : Orange Juice – Falling and Laughing
mp3 : Orange Juice – Moscow
mp3 : Orange Juice – Moscow Olympics
(Postcard 80-1 : released April 1980)

mp3 : Orange Juice – Blue Boy
mp3 : Orange Juice – Love Sick
(Postcard 80-2 : released September 1980)

mp3 : Orange Juice – Simply Thrilled Honey
mp3 : Orange Juice – Breakfast Time
(Postcard 80-6 : released December 1980)

mp3 : Orange Juice – Poor Old Soul
mp3 : Orange Juice – Poor Old Soul (pt2)
(Postcard 81-2 : released March 1981)

Note for trivia fans. Wan Light was given a catalogue number of 81-6 and scheduled for a June 1981 release. But it never happened.

June Brides

CULT CLASSICS : IN THE RAIN and EVERY CONVERSATION by THE JUNE BRIDES

This is a last-minute change of cult classic. I had something else lined-up but it’s now going to have to wait a few weeks. Blame it on the demands of the customer base…and specifically that of Jacke from Stockholm who just 48 hours ago asked for some June Brides in the next post.

I’ll confess that I initially missed out on The June Brides. They formed in 1983 and by the following year had released two singles on The Pink Label. This was an era when I was listening to a lot of music and I can only guess that the reason that TJB passed me by was that I was too busy getting lost in the music of The Smiths, New Order, Lloyd Cole & The Commotions, Friends Again, Orange Juice, Go-Betweens, etc to pick up on everything. It wasn’t till the early 90s, some five years after TJB had broken-up, that I became aware of some of the songs they had recorded and released in their all too brief a career.

More fool me.

I think it’s best therefore, to allow someone who did fall in love with them right away to express what it is that makes this band so special. I’m pinching the following words from a great piece put together by Andy Wood in a piece he posted on the great blog Manic Pop Thrills:-

I was still at school, struggling along and trying to find some kind of identity for myself. A friend gave me a cassette of sessions that he’d taped recently from the John Peel show and there was a session by The June Brides which really struck a chord with me and that was it, I was hooked. The four songs on that session really stuck out for me, there was a sense of beauty and lovely melodies, there was the mix between that loveliness and a sense of regret, even worldly-weariness but also a sense of the possibility of change and a defiance that things could be better, no matter how small the change. The words and music became very special to me. I began to get quite interested in the sounds being produced by independent bands and labels and discovered a whole world which influenced me and this got me into playing, putting on live gigs and producing fanzines as part of a D.I.Y. culture that seemed so vibrant and interesting and diametrically opposed to the world of the polished, dull mainstream.

I tracked down everything I could find by the band and looked forward to new records and the possibility of seeing them live. Alas, although they played Dundee once I had no chance of being admitted to a strictly over 18’s only show in Fat Sams. I hated being young, I couldn’t wait to grow up, I was impatient to taste this world of gigs and music, to be free from the strictures of school and my parents but I was stuck, as The June Brides suggested, simply waiting for a change.

Fate is a cruel thing. Despite having seemed to have been on an unstoppable rise, releasing an album and several great singles and touring incessantly – including with The Smiths (on an Irish tour) – the band called it a day. Those who added the lush viola and trumpet to the June Brides sound would go on to play sessions with a number of bands including while frontman Phil Wilson signed to Creation as a solo artist.

The influence of the band remained though, at times noticeable and at other points less so. I think it can be heard in the music of a number of bands, not necessarily in an obvious way but it’s there. Belle and Sebastian would be one band I’d say shared my love for The June Brides. Their Peel session was issued in 1987 which finally allowed me to replace my hissy second generation cassette. A best of followed a few years later then there was an album of covers put out. Cherry Red issued the double CD “Every Conversation. The Story of The June Brides and Phil Wilson” which collected everything the band and Wilson had ever recorded. It’s an essential album for anyone I think…..

And it’s thanks to that Cherry Red compilation that I really discovered just how good the June Brides had been and indeed how equally rich the Phil Wilson solo material was in quality. It is, without question, as Andy says, an essential compilation. It also led me to get a hold of a vinyl copy of their one proper studio LP, There Are Eight Million Stories…. which was scheduled for a posting on this blog in a couple of weeks time, but Jacke’s prompting has brought things forward.

With this being the cult singles series, I’m going back to 1984 to the earliest material. I really couldn’t make my mind up which of the two singles from that year to select, so I’m cheating and featuring both.

mp3 : The June Brides – In The Rain
mp3 : The June Brides – Sunday To Saturday

(catalogue # Pinky1, released March 1984)

mp3 : The June Brides – Every Conversation
mp3 : The June Brides – Disneyland

(catalogue # Pinky 2, released September 1984)

The b-sides are also from the top drawer.

30 years on and the band have reformed and are playing live. They came to Glasgow in late November 2013, but alas I was out of the country on holiday. I hope they come back again soon….

Everything you want to know can be found at www.junebridesmusic.com

Enjoy!!!!

Meat Whiplash

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 79)

From wiki:-

Meat Whiplash was an alternative rock band from East Kilbride, Scotland, that were amongst the first to be signed to Creation Records.

The line-up was Paul McDermott (vox), Stephen McLean (guitar), Edward Connelly (bass guitar) and Michael Kerr (drums). They took their name from a B-side track by The Fire Engines. They then became The Motorcycle Boy when female singer Alex Taylor (of The Shop Assistants) joined the group in 1987.

They only had one record released, Don’t Slip Up, which spent 19 weeks in the UK’s independent music chart, where it reached the No. 3 position following its release on 14 September 1985 as a 7″ single, (which had a sleeve featuring actor Robert Vaughn, printed up by Bobby Gillespie and hand-folded by their record label’s owner, Alan McGee).

They are notorious for being the opening band at The Jesus and Mary Chain‘s infamous “riot gig” at the North London Polytechnic on 15 March 1985, where they threw a wine bottle into the crowd and were, according to The Jasmine Minks, the next band set to play, then beaten-up on-stage by members of the audience who later rioted when the controversial main act performed. They also had a session in the Maida Vale studios for John Peel’s show on BBC Radio 1 on 15 October that same year.

“Meat Whiplash” was also the name of a mid-80s independent record store in Plymouth, Devon, run by Jeff Barrett, who later worked as a press officer for Creation Records and then founded Heavenly Records. After a concert in the city by the Jesus and Mary Chain, the store acquired a second sign and also became known as “Bobby Gillespie’s.”

mp3 : Meat Whiplash – Don’t Slip Up
mp3 : Meat Whiplash – Here It Comes

Enjoy!

Chesterfields, Orange Juice, Vic Godard & Subway Sect

THE BEST SONG TO PEAK AT #4 IN THE INDIE CHART?

A lot of the stuff from the C86 movement hasn’t aged well. In many cases, this will be down to poor production which nowadays grates on the ear while all too often the off-key singing which in its day seemed to be part of the charm now sounds annoying.

But there are still some songs that, almost 30 years on, deserve to be thought of as absolute classics. It’s a crying shame that so many of the small indie labels weren’t able to give the records the push they needed to crossover into the conscious of mainstream listeners. All too often, the label and indeed the band seemed happy enough to settle for a few playings on the John Peel Show, a positive review in the NME and then an appearance somewhere in the indie Top 10. I’m not saying that was the case with today’s tune, but there is seemingly something seriously wrong when a song as brilliant as this has to settle for #4 on the Indie Chart:-

mp3 : The Chesterfields – Ask Johnny Dee

They were in existence from 84-89 during which time there were two studio LPs and eight singles/EPs. They toured extensively (I saw them once as support act to Edwyn Collins on one of his earliest solo tours) and like so many bands picked up a decent sized hardcore following. many of whom (according to wiki) referred to them as “The Chesterf!elds”, with an exclamation mark replacing the “i”, following the example of the band’s logo.

Tragically, lead singer and main songwriter Dave Goldsworthy died in November 2003, at the age of 40, from head injuries sustained in a hit & run incident in Oxford.

One thing to mention is that The Chesterfields, like Orange Juice, did a cover of a great Vic Godway track. I thought it would be an idea to post all three versions:-

mp3 : Vic Goddard & The Subway Sect – Holiday Hymn
mp3 : Orange Juice – Holiday Hymn
mp3 : The Chesterfields – Holiday Hymn

Enjoy!!

Hole

BLUE JEANS AND CHINOS; COKE, PEPSI AND OREOS (Part 6)

I got thinking about putting a posting together about Hole the other week when I did the back-to-back pieces on Cope, McCulloch and Wylie. I had forgotten that Courtney Love, as a teenage tearaway, had lived in Liverpool for a spell during which she became very friendly with Julian. I believe him when he says they never fucked…

I don’t actually own all that many bits of music by Hole but then again they didn’t really release all that much material. They formed in the late 80s but took ages to get a settled line up – the other constant member was Eric Erlandson. The debut LP, Pretty On The Inside, was released on small indie labels in 1991 on both sides of the Atlantic and its rough and ready production combined with the lead singer’s confrontational approach to life and to performing got them plenty of attention and in very soon they were signed on a fat and lengthy contract to Geffen Records, one of the biggest labels in the world.

It took a while to get the material for the next LP together but that was completely secondary to the circus that was Courtney Love’s life….she had only gone and married the world’s biggest rock star and had his baby daughter.

But amidst the chaos surrounding Mr & Mrs Cobain, Hole (which had once again gone through further changes with seemingly nobody capable of working with Courtney & Eric for any extended period of time) announced that their debut for a major was set for release in the spring of 1994.

On 8 April 1994, Kurt Cobain shot himself. Four days later, the very unfortunately named Live Through This was released with an eerie cover of a beauty queen, similar in looks to Love, with mascara running down her cheeks as the result of her crying. You couldn’t make it up……….

It was known that Cobain had worked with his wife on the LP and critics and fans alike poured over it to see if the record contained any clues to his suicide. None were forthcoming, but what they found however, was an incredibly impressive record – one that showed Courtney Love and her band had talent to burn – with a very fine combination of rock and pop that was incredibly radio friendly. Or to put it another way…it sounded the way that the industry had hoped Nirvana would go on the back of Nevermind when in fact they had gone much heavier on In Utero.

It took another four years for the next Hole record to be released and in the intervening period the band had lost its bass player to a drugs overdose, the lead singer had starred in a Hollywood movie for which she and received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance while the other band members did side projects. All the while the spectre of Kurt Cobain hung over everything.

Celebrity Skin again caught folk out being very friendly rock that was soon on heavy rotation on radio stations all across the States. Courtney had shown, as a singer-songwriter/performer that she was no one-horse pony. The album is estimated to have sold over 2 million copies worldwide, of which some 75% found homes in the USA.

On the road though, things didn’t work out well.

In the winter of 1998–99, Hole planned a tour to promote Celebrity Skin jointly headlining with Marilyn Manson, but after just nine dates they quit, partly due to the poor reception they were receiving from Manson’s fans who made up the majority of the live audiences.

For the next six months, Hole toured the world in a combination of their own headline shows or as part of festivals and then were dealt a blow in late 1999 when again those members who weren’t named Love or Erlandson quit the band.

It took another three years before the band officially broke up. In 2010, Love announced Hole would be reforming but in reality it was just her with new backing musicians and the subsequent LP, Nobody’s Daughter, and the live shows that followed were a pale imitation of the goddess who had conquered all in the mid 90s.

Here’s some of the great singles from that era:-

mp3 : Hole – Miss World
mp3 : Hole – Violet
mp3 : Hole – Doll Parts
mp3 : Hole – Celebrity Skin
mp3 : Hole – Malibu

Enjoy.

James

THE JAMES SINGLES (4)

This is actually one of the James singles that I don’t have a copy of..and huge thanks to those of you who got in touch to offer mp3s of various b-sides to help me complete the mission. I might take you up on the offers in due course but it turns out I’m ok for So Many Ways from July 1986 as the two tracks on the 7″ were taken straight from the LP Stutter:-

mp3 : James – So Many Ways
mp3 : James – Withdrawn

The additional track on the 12″ was an extended and different version of a song also available on Stutter and I’ve been able to hunt down a copy of it:-

mp3 : James – Just Hipper

I say extended…but even then it is only 1:57 long as compared to the LP version which clocks in at 1:46.

This single was an even bigger flop than any of their previous releases was deleted by the record label not long after release. As a consequence, it is one of the more difficult bits of plastic to get a hold of nowadays but then again the lack of any new material, certainly on the 7″ means it really is one for completists.

Enjoy!

David Holmes, Secret Knowledge

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT…WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (19)

Banging Heads and Banging Tunes

From the South West Correspondent : Whats in Your Box Part 19

Various Artists – ‘The Science Behind the Circle’.

You know when you get on a bus and there is always one joker at the back (baseball cap, tracksuit, sovereign ring) whose music you can hear above the sound of the engine – and its always techno or ‘happy house’ blaring out. That’s what listening to this weeks CD(s) sounds like. For today, I embraced dance music big style. Out of the box came a double CD of techno and house music from 1996 called ‘The Science Behind the Circle’ which features tracks by Secret Knowledge, Carl Cox, David Holmes and Andrew Weatherall. I however have no idea about the idea behind the CD or if it was released to tie in with a club or something like that. Further knowledge is scarce on the Internet as well.

The only problem is that today I am poorly, I have man flu. As you can image at times its been touch and go and I drift in and out of consciousness and I have the ambulance folk on speed dial. This CD is what I would refer to a ‘Bangin’ but only because I’m too lazy to think of any other words to describe music that involves the use of a 303 (again, I have no idea what a 303 is, or whether or not, these tracks actually do use a 303). What this CD has taught me is though is that someone out there is releasing records as Vinyl Blair, which is a frankly marvellous name. I await DJ Noel Edphones releases with baited breath.

Dance music sounds weird when you are too tired to listen to things properly, you miss things, the little bleeps and bips become annoying and the euphoria of doesn’t quite work when strongest drugs you have ingested is Lemsip. Normally when I am poorly I listen to things with acoustic guitars or I dig out Four Tet and play it until I fall asleep. It is impossible to fall asleep listening to this, and I have to say my headache got slightly worse whilst this was on – not because its terrible but because it does just bleep, whoomp and dof a lot.

The standout tracks for me as ‘Drive Me Crazy’ by Secret Knowledge (Secret Knowledge is the band formed by ex-journalist Kris Needs and I recommend them) and ‘Grumpy Flutter’ by David Holmes – which was the only track on here I’d previously heard. The Second CD is a little more laid back than the first one – although its still pretty uplifting stuff. It’s a good album, its got Andrew Weatherall on it, so it can’t be bad at all, its just a shame that right now I’m not in a place to enjoy it.

mp3 : Secret Knowlege – Drive Me Crazy

mp3 : David Holmes – Grumpy Flutter

Pass the Strepsils, see you next week.

S-WC

Bauhaus

REMEMBERING BAUHAUS

Bauhaus are one of the many bands of the early 80s era who could lay claim to having a say in the ‘invention’ of goth rock. It’s fair to say that most folk will recall the name of only one member of the four-piece, that of singer Peter Murphy. And yet, the fact is he only became part of the band when the others approached him, not because of his vocal talents, but simply because he had the right look.

There’s no disputing that Murphy was one of those blokes who it was impossible for even the most hetro and red-blooded male to deny was good-looking. Certainly, there were plenty of us who tried hard to capture the image, be it the impeccably prepared hair, the sharp as a razor cheekbones, or the piercing eyes made all the more memorable by the clever application of make-up.

Bauhaus never quite made it the way so many expected them to. I was surprised to find out that of the 11 singles and 4 EPs released at their peak between 1980 and 1983, only two of them actually cracked the Top 40, and one of these was a cover of Ziggy Stardust (indeed, this was their biggest success hitting #15 in 1982).

There are, in my opinion, two tracks that have more than stood the test of time and I’ve dug the bits of vinyl out of the cupboard. Possibly the greatest nine-minute long single of all time:-

mp3 : Bauhaus – Bela Legosi’s Dead

I don’t have the original 1979 release but one from a couple of year later that has this fascinating little number on the b-side:-

mp3 : Bauhaus – Boys/Dark Entries (demo)

A close second in my personal Bauhaus chart is this:-

mp3 : Bauhaus – Kick In The Eye

The song had in fact been issued as a single in 1981 but had stalled at #59. On the back of the Ziggy success, the record label gave it a re-release on the Searching for Satori EP, but still public wouldn’t bite and it only reached a disappointing #45. And yet…..I could have sworn it was a huge hit…it was one of those songs that inevitably filled the floor of any student disco I was at. Here’s yer other tracks which by turn are surprising (ie not the sort of song you’d associate with miserable goths) and weird (ie unlistenable shite…..but feel free to differ)

mp3 : Bauhaus – Harry
mp3 : Bauhaus – Earwax

Oh and I forgot…..I’m also quite fond of giving this a listen every now and again, but I’ve only got a copy via a CD compilation:-

mp3 : Bauhaus – Lagartija Nick

Enjoy!!

APB

CULT CLASSICS : RAINY DAY by APB

Being an American with a love of British pop and rock from the Punk and Post Punk Era, there are literally thousands of song which I consider cult classics, but with just the slightest attention on the interweb it can be determined that they were indeed hits in their native land.

One band that had the odd distinction of being quite bid in NYC in the early to mid 1980’s but only had a whisper of success in the UK was APB.

Scots with a massive love of angular guitar, funky bass and a pure pop sensibility, I just don’t know why each of their first 5 or 6 singles didn’t storm the UK charts. They gained attention from Peel and Jensen but went no where in the charts. Their biggest success was a Billboard #1 Dance/Club Chart hit with What Kind Of Girl in 1984 on the backs of a seemingly unlikely occurance – underground success in NYC at the hands of a few DJ’s and radio programers with their ears to the ground. Their NYC success was all but unknown to the band for almost 2 years, but their sound was right on target for the City’s college radio and the dance clubs like Peppermint Lounge and Danceteria. This was a time when ESG, NY Peech Boys and Material were spreading left of center funk all over the City.

The story goes that someone at one of the college radio stations called up their label in Scotland, Oily, for some more info on the band and that was the first time anyone at the label or the band were aware of the cult following they had in America’s biggest city and Tri-State area. A quick set of dates on the East Coast went down a smash…I was at 2 of those shows and they would come back something like a dozen more time over the coming years and I don’t believe I missed any of those shows. Their tours would usually start and finish at NYC’s The Ritz Club and they were sold out events.

For me the track of theirs that was the most personal and thus a classic as well was Rainy Day.

mp3 : APB – Rainy Day

I love Shoot You Down and One Day which are equal in power and hip gyrating attack, but Rainy Day had that plaintive, almost angry lyric that just grabbed me. It’s a song about a day with nothing going right and not knowing exactly what to blame it on.

I count it as one of my Favorite 50 songs of all time for all those reasons. It was also the track I always remember getting the crowd going mental – part angry anthem and manic dance groove. The middle section turns into a reel with three sets of lyrics playing off each other simultaneously creating a tense and intricate groove. The Ritz’s dancefloor would actually move as if a small earthquake was heaving and swaying it during Rainy Day. The middle section turns into a reel with three sets of lyrics playing off each other simultaneously creating a tense and intricate groove.

Richard Kolnsberg

Malcolm Middleton

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 78)

The man with the guitar in Arab Strap.

The shy, retiring one.

The one least likely to make it as a solo artist. A run of critically accliamed LPs would say otherwise.

I’ve all of his singles (bar the hard to find limited edition tour EP of cover songs in which our intrepid hero somehow lost half of the stock thus reducing, at a stroke, the number legitimately for sale to 250). I’ve plumped for one of his later efforts – it’s a shortened version of one of the tracks from Waxing Gibbous released in 2009 complete with bad rap!

mp3 : Malcolm Middleton – Zero (edit)
mp3 : Malcolm Middleton – Bad Stuff’s Free

On white vinyl too!

Enjoy

Test Icicles

CIRCLE. SQUARE. TRIANGLE

This 2005 single was never aimed at the likes of me:-

mp3 : Test Icicles – Circle. Square. Triangle.

This lot had probably broken up by the time I first heard the song which would have been on one or other of the music video channels in an end of the year round-up. Taken from the bio on the website of their label:-

Sounding like a bootleg Def Jam t -shirt at the end of a sweaty party the Test Icicles trio made a sound already casting a long shadow of influence among their peers and a new generation of messy hyper-hormoned kids.

The trio of 25-year-old Rory Atwell and 19-year-olds Sam Mehran and Devonté Hynes burst out of underground file sharing sights and into messy one-off gigs in friend’s houses in a riot of shredder guitar solos, beatbox rhythms, fringes and drainpipes. Whilst many bands claim to be “into a bit of everything” Test Icicles sounded like everything they’d ever heard, spewed out and re-wired for a different type of moshpit etiquette, a brand new teenage riot.

The tracks on their debut album For Screening Purposes Only sounded like mash-ups of themselves and the single Circle, Square, Triangle became a modern nightclub staple. Their live shows were an eruption of metal poses, injury, boy and girl crowd surfacing and air punching – a spectacle that any award-winning stylist would have trouble improving.

Just as the mainstream media were beginning to get their heads around peer-to-peer networking and the power of MySpace the band that had truly evolved out of below the radar networking did the unthinkable and split – and left a perfect mess of themselves on record.

So there you are…a song by a band aimed solely at the kids and how they consumed music and yet here I was at 42 years of age falling for its charms. I was drawn to it by its energy, its rawness and the fact it had so many different post-punk and new wave influences. The kids probably had heard very little like it, but I had a cupboard full of vinyl that said otherwise.

I have never had any desire though to even search out any other song by Test Icicles. Having this 7″ was good enough for me.

Here’s the short and sharp b-side:-

mp3 : Test Icicles – Lmno Hoes

Enjoy!

The The

IS IT ANY WONDER WE CAN’T STOP FIGHTING WITH EACH OTHER?

A cracking novel I read a while back made a claim about there being a ridiculously high number of christian denominations in the world. As the novel was a parody, I assumed the figure being quoted was for comic effect. It was when I was rummaging through the cupboard recently searching through Tindersticks for the copy of Kathleen that featured at the beginning of the week that I came across all of my 7″ singles by The The (of course my vinyl is filed alphabetically).

The fact that one of the 7″ singles has an excellent and fairly rare remix on its b-side is the sole reason for featuring it today. But it also acted as a reminder to check out the number of christain denominations. So I fired up wiki.

41,000 is the estimate.

41,000……………………………………..

Admittedly, many of the 41,000 have just a handful of followers but it is still a mind-boggling number and this link will give you an idea of just how many christian religions there are out there….all, more or less, proclaiming theirs is the one true way.

41,000………………………………………. jeez.

Even those who preach the word of god admit that the denominationalism is usually the outcome of conflict and confrontation. And that’s scary enough without considering the fights that break out as a result of disagreements over different religions.

mp3 : The The – Armageddon Days Are Here Again (radio edit)
mp3 : The The – Armageddon Days Are Here Again (orchestral version)

From 1989. It reached #70 in the UK singles chart. You won’t be surprised to hear it didn’t get much in the way of airtime.

The single version features the god-like genius of Johnny Marr.

Is it fair to say that he would feature in any list of the top 41,000 guitarists in the world?

Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

SPECIAL K

Kylie Minogue is back on British telly as a one of the judges on the ludicrous talent show The Voice. In all likelihood, this will lead to a resurgence in her own recording career after a spell in the wilderness. I hope she doesn’t spoil her legacy with some half-arsed music by numbers…

I bet there’s some of you reading this thinking that I’m not being serious. But as my dear friend Jacques the Kipper will testify, I have long been an advocate of the talent of probably the most famous Australian on the planet. So much so, that back in the early 1990s when a music magazine (I think it may well have been the long-defunct Select) printed a photo of Kylie cavorting on a bed with Bobby Gillespie, JtK got a t-shirt made with my head superimposed on the body on Mr G, with the words ‘I Should Be So Lucky’ printed underneath…..

And I know that I’m not the only long-time indie-disco freak who hasn’t fallen for her charms over the years. If nothing else, nobody can deny that this is a stunning pop record that is a very close cousin to so many of the great electronica records of the 80s:-

mp3 : Kylie Minogue – I Can’t Get You Out Of My Head

Of course there’s been a lot of stuff she has recorded and released that has been unlistenable. But overall, the magnificent easily outnumber the mundane, while there have been more sublime 45s than shite 45s. Oh and let’s not forget that she was also single-handedly responsible for getting Nick Cave onto Top Of The Pops for the one and only time:-

mp3 : Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds (feat Kylie Minogue) – Where The Wild Roses Grow

And among all the great acts that I’ve seen live over the years, I’ve rarely been so well entertained as when Mrs V took me along as a surprise to catch Kylie perform in March 2005 at the SECC in Glasgow.

A few years back, I had the pleasure of finding a 12″ promo copy of some dance mixes disc of one of my favourite Kylie singles for just £1, so I’m sticking to my principles by offering these rips from vinyl:-

mp3 : Kylie Minogue – Confide In Me (Master Mix)
mp3 : Kylie Minogue – Confide In Me (The Truth Mix)
mp3 : Kylie Minogue – Confide In Me (Big Brothers Mix)

Enjoy!!!!

Cure

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT..WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (18)

TEARS OF A CLOWN

The Cure : Mint Car

Ok I’m going to be blunt here. Mint Car features on The Cure album Wild Mood Swings. It is the best song on that album. I think its fair to say that Wild Mood Swings was the not The Cure’s finest moment. In fact I’d go as far as to say it’s their worst album by some way (Disintegration being their best and I’d take anyone outside who wants to argue).

mp3 : The Cure – Mint Car

I’m also not going to sit here and tell you about The Cure, where they formed, and all that – you know that, surely. They have some great records, no scratch that, they have some wonderful records, again most of which you will own, know, or played the hell out of. There are a great singles band and just for the hell of it and just in case there is someone out there who has never heard The Cure, the best three Cure singles to start your collection with are Just Like Heaven, Pictures of You and Lovesong (the first and third songs being two of the greatest love songs ever written). Mint Car is about twenty sixth on that list. Just above A Forest.

mp3 : The Cure – Just Like Heaven (acoustic)
mp3 : The Cure – Pictures Of You
mp3 : The Cure – Lovesong (acoustic)

So I’m going to talk about crying instead (in a very round about kind of way – and yes I know this is a music blog), and the reason why is this. My one year old has been poorly this week she has been a small fiery mixture of tears, snot, gunge and regurgitated carrot. She’s fine now though, thanks for asking. A few days ago I drove her to the beach where she likes to run around a bit, well I say run, more stagger, totter and then fall over, but you get my drift. Anyway, we were driving home and I had Guess The Year on Radio Devon on the stereo, (yes Radio Devon, I happen to like Guess the Year with Shep, shut up) and it was 1979 (I got it quite early on, the DJ caters to the low common denominator…”this was the year Margaret Thatcher came to power”, was one of the clues).

Then, all of a sudden, the DJ played a blinder, as I sat in traffic waiting to head homewards, he played Bright Eyes by Art Garfunkel and by the end of it I was a fiery mixture of tears, snot and gunge (no regurgitated carrot).

I have no shame in admitting this, it’s a sad song, about rabbits. I like rabbits.But it did make me think. It joins a short list of now four records that have made me cry (to be honest it does it most times and if you don’t find it sad, you have a waxy pea sized heart), I won’t bore you with the other three A Natural by Whipping Boy, Shine a Light by Spiritualized and Hurt by Johnny Cash ) but would be intrigued to know which songs make you blub, I don’t care about the reasons, unless you want to share (Group Hug, anyone?), just interested. Sniff.

(Oh and I would like to apologise for all the brackets in this piece, sorry).

S-WC

JC adds

My list extends to way beyind four, but then again lots of music can turn me into an emotional gibbering wreck – especially if I’m had too much to drink.

The most recent would have been on the occasion of the burial of my young brother a few years back. It was the result of a car accident, it happened in the west of Ireland and the responsibility of getting the family over there from Scotland fell on my shoulders as did a few other tasks in Ireland. I held everything together till the very last second until the first notes of the music to accompany the coffin disappearing to where the cremation would take place. It was a piece selected by the funeral director (the family really had no idea what would be appropriate as we had no idea what my young brother’s tastes were) and it was Time To Say Goodbye by Sarah Brightman & Andrea Bocelli. And ever since, I’ve never been able to hear that song without losing it…

There’s been loads of times the use of a song in a film has had me crying – most notably at the end of Control (the song being Atmosphere by Joy Division). And which Smiths fan hasn’t at some point lost it at least once when he or she his listening to I Know It’s Over……

I’ll stop there.

Tindersticks, Townes Van Zandt

KATHLEEN

The first time I heard Kathleen it was on a tape given to me by a friend. I assumed it was an original composition as it had all the hallmarks of a classic Tindersticks recording. I got round to talking about it with said friend and was very surprised to learn it was a cover version.

mp3 : Tindersticks – Kathleen

The Tindersticks of this era (mid-late 90s) are impossible to characterise. They can’t be defined as rock, jazz or soul and yet they have a little bit of all of those in many of their songs. They employed all sorts of instruments on their records, including brass, strings and percussion – and in Stuart Staples, they had, and still have, a singer with a distinctive and unmistakable baritone voice. Some say they are just another doom-laden miserablist lot. Far from it.

They were a band best consumed in the live setting. Until last year when I saw Frightened Rabbit in a packed compact venue in the middle of a Berlin heatwave, the Tindersticks gig at the Jaffa Cake in Edinburgh in 1997 is the hottest I’ve ever been at a gig…so hot that the band had to remove their jackets! And in 2002 I was lucky enough, in the company of Mrs Villain, to see them perform in the stunning surroundings of Somerset House in London, complete with 20 piece orchestra on a warm summer evening in which I was sure I had seen THE perfect concert in my lifetime. I even spotted Concorde in the sky above at one point….

For a long long time I only had a copy of Kathleen courtesy of it being on said cassette tape. One day I dropped an e-mail to the band looking for a bit of heads-up on plans to re-release the early LPs to find out if any bonus material in the offing would include making Kathleen available as I had been looking out for a copy for a number of years. I was told yes, but was also asked that If I wanted I could have a copy of the 7″ single as there was a spare one lying around in the office. You can guess my answer….

It now sits in the cupboard proudly beside all my other vinyl, #2184 of what had been a limited run of 5000. Here’s the other three tracks on the 7″:-

mp3 : Tindersticks – Summat Moon
mp3 : Tindersticks – A Sweet Sweet Man
mp3 : Tindersticks – E-Type Joe

As I said at the outset, I was surprised to find out this was a cover. It made me determined to track down the original and was amazed to learn just how close in style and tone the Tindersticks version was and yet they had still made it sound as if it was one of their own. I thought only The Wedding Present were capable of such genius….

mp3 : Townes Van Zandt – Kathleen

Until that point in time I knew nothing about Townes Van Zandt. His life is surely a Hollywood movie in waiting….

Whipping Boy

CULT CLASSICS : WE DON’T NEED NOBODY ELSE by WHIPPING BOY

Not released on an indie label but very much an indie band.

Whipping Boy formed in Dublin in 1988 and started out in life as Fall covers band. In 1992 they released their first album Submarine and then signed to the Columbia Label. In 1995 they came to the attention of a wider audience with the release of Heartworm their second album.

It is from this that We Don’t Need Nobody Else was taken. It’s a brutal episode of love, betrayal and heartbreak with singer Fergal McKee at first speaking over the wall of guitars in the back ground, then getting angrier and angrier. There is one verse in the song that makes your hairs stand up on end and genuinely made me shiver it’s the bit where Mckee says

“I hit you for the first time today, I didn’t mean to It just happened You wouldn’t let me go to the phone, you wanted to make love and I did not Now I know the distance between us Christ we weren’t even fighting, I was just annoyed”

Is it misogynist? No, well probably not. What it is, is a raw and emotional account of a love lost. Follow the song through, you’ll understand. Listen to A Natural, the very last (hidden) track on Heartworm and it all becomes very clear, well it did to me. To me, this identified how music can be a very powerful thing, in fact it can tear your heart out whilst you sing along. Lyrically this song is as beautiful as anything I have ever listened to and yet they are not the household names they should be.

mp3 : Whipping Boy – We Don’t Need Nobody Else
mp3 : Whipping Boy – A Natural

Is it a cult classic? Yes it’s the very definition of a cult classic, it scraped the Top Fifty. The album is better received now than it was 18 years ago. The band had very little success when perhaps they should have been megastars, Heartworm was recently voted one of the greatest Irish Albums of all time, I would lose the word ‘Irish’ there myself.

S-WC

Billy MacKenzie, Mackenzie Sings Orbidoig

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 77)

Today’s words are courtesy of Whippet at The Wheel, a wonderful former blog dedicated to the life and work of Billy Mackenzie:-

The guitarist Steve Reid was a long time friend of Billy’s.

“Orbidoig” had been a name used by Mr Reid and Christine Beveridge for their musical project formed some time after Christine had taken on vocal duties with Strange News in 1980. Billy had managed to help get Orbidoig a deal with Situation Two back in 1981, which had resulted in a single “Nocturnal Operations”/ “Up Periscopes”. Billy MacKenzie is credited with playing tubular bells on “Nocturnal Operations”. It was recorded around the time Christine Beveridge briefly joined Billy and Alan to form 39 Lyon Street and record one track “Kites”. The Orbidoig single sleeve photo is actually a publicity photo of 39 Lyon Street which has been severely cropped – leaving only Christine.

In the wake of the Rankine split, 1982 saw Billy team up with old pal and fellow Dundonian Mr Reid once more for a one-off single “Ice Cream Factory” released neither as a Billy MacKenzie solo single nor as an Orbidoig release… but as “MacKenzie Sings Orbidoig”! A rich musical creation spawned under the watchful eye of producer Mark Arthurworrey and written by Stevie Reid, the outcome made for a spot of uneasy, easy-listening. Released in 12″ and 7″ versions, the single received scant airplay and bombed. The B-sides were a dub version of the A side called “Cream Of Ice Cream Factory” and another track “Excursion Ecosse En Route Koblenz Via Hawkhill” a melodic but rather twisted, gnashing bit of guitar wrangling from Mr Reid. Hawkhill, for those who have no experience of Dundee is a pleasant cosmopolitan road which stretches from the big roundabout at The Marketgait, past the end of Blackness Road and down onto the Perth Road.

The 7″ has a place in the cupboard and is the 77th alphabetical single in this long running series:-

mp3 : Mackenzie Sings Orbidoig – Ice Cream Factory
mp3 : Mackenzie Sings Orbidoig – Excursion Ecosse En Route Koblenz Via Hawkhill

Enjoy!!!

UPDATE TO ABOVE POST

A reader kindly pointed out the the b-side ‘skipped’ a bit early on in the recording.

I’ve re-done the track and the problem is now resolved……