THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

REMEMBERING : GORKY’S ZYGOTIC MYNCI

With apologies to those who remember a post from back in 2008 on the old blog which this is based:-

Between 1996 and 1999, the wonderful Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci released eight great singles on the bounce, all of which sold enough to reach the Top 75, but none of which sold enough to get a crucial placing in the Top 40.

Patio Song – #41
Diamond Dew – #42
Young Girls & Happy Endings/Dark Nights – #49
Sweet Johnny – #60
Let’s Get Together (In Our Minds) – #43
Spanish Dance Troupe – #47
Poodle Rockin – #52
Stood On Gold – #65

No other band has managed to hit the crossbar on so many occasions. And when you think of how many substandard bits of music have cracked the charts over the years, you have to conclude that there really is no justice in this fickle world.

Gorky’s (or maybe I should call them The Mynci – as in Hey, Hey We’re The Mynci) were victims of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. In an era when music was consumed almost entirely via radio, it was very rare that a band could get chart success without the patronage of daytime DJs and this was a band who only got played on shows where Mark Radcliffe or John Peel were guardians of the wheels of steel. The fact too that the cost of CD singles was outrageous, certainly is respect of the price paid in comparison to manufacturing costs, meant that even someone whose interest might have been piqued by hearing a song on Radio 1 late at night would probably instead stick to the album.

If digital downloads had been available in the late 90s, then it is very likely that Gorky’s would have, on at least one occasion, got into the Top 40 which would have been followed by an appearance on Top of The Pops and exposure to a wider audience some of whom would certainly have fallen under the magic spell of a band whose work is so reminiscent of the really early recordings by James. Fame and fortune would have beckoned instead of remaining tantalizingly over the horizon.

It is hard to see anyone else ever having such a run of near-misses ever again – for one thing singles can achieve chart success with fewer sales than 20 years ago and although this is purely a guess based on no scientific evidence or statistical analysis, I reckon all all eight of the singles would have been at least 20-25 places higher in the chart rundown.

There’s also the fact that record companies no longer show such patience and tolerance towards any act that doesn’t deliver instant success in terms of sales, and there’s no way single after single would be released in the same way as Gorky’s enjoyed at their creative peak.

I thought I had all of these singles sitting on the CD shelves just to the left hand side of where I sit and type these words, but there seems to one missing (Poodle Rockin), so it will need to be a quick hunt on e-bay to rectify that. In the meantime, here’s my three personal favourites:-

mp3 : Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Young Girls And Happy Ending
mp3 : Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Diamond Dew
mp3 : Gorky’s Zygotic Mynci – Spanish Dance Troupe

Happy Listening.

Liaisons Dangereuses

CULT CLASSIC : LOS NINOS DEL PARQUE by LIAISONS DANGEREUSES

Hello friends,

Liaisons Dangereuses just made one record, but, good Lord, what a record it was, to be sure! To me, it pretty neatly sums up the definition of ‘cult’.

Also the band (and the record) match the other requirements: “(…) released on an indie-label, from a band or singer who never enjoyed mainstream success and is a piece of music that in a parallel universe would have been a smash hit and made a fortune for the composer and/or performer(s).”

Liaisons Dangereuses were founded in 1981 by Berlin’s Beate Bartel and Chrislo Haas, who, before Liaisons Dangereuses, already worked together under the moniker of CHBB. CHBB released four cassettes, untitled, limited to 50 copies, each 10 minutes long. I have never heard one of those and you haven’t either, I guess. But not to worry, the record in question is by Liaisons Dangereuses, not by CHBB.

Liaisons Dangereuses released a self-titled album in 1981, which – again – I never heard (you probably might have done so though, congratulations) on TIS Records in Germany and Roadrunner Records in the Netherlands. One song from said album was released as a 7” and a 12”, but this time only on Roadrunner Records. Never heard of TIS Records? Roadrunner Records? Perfect: in compliance with the first requirement!

Beate Bartel formerly played with Einstürzende Neubauten and also Mania D (“My Queens of Noise”, as John Peel styled them back then) whereas Chrislo Haas was a founding member of Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft (or DAF, if you’d rather) and Der Plan, but also played together with Minus Delta t and Crime & The City Solution. Back in those days he was known as t.h.e. German synthesizer guru. German readers of a certain age will most probably be aware of his genius, the rest of you might still know the synthesizer line in DAF’s ‘Der Mussolini’ … that’s this bloke, y’know ….

I don’t know exactly what Beate Bartel is earning currently, she’s doing some experimental art performance projects. I’m sure you agree with me that these things tend not to make you rich rich rich or enable a shopping-topless-in-Biarritz sort of lifestyle and thus don’t really lead to mainstream success … and Chrislo Haas drank himself to death with 47 years in 2004 anyway, so: second requirement fulfilled as well!

The record in question, at least as far as I can tell, never hit the “big” charts back in the days. But in Germany it was a dancefloor filler (@ any underground club with at least a bit of taste in music anyway) throughout all of the Eighties. Also, so I read quite a while ago, the techno scene as well in Detroit as in Chicago seem to have fancied it when they started up. For me it isn’t techno though, then again I am way too old to differentiate between all these dance things anyway. It is a very fine mixture between EBM, Postpunk and New Wave perhaps … then again who gives a fuck for those definitions in the first place, right?

One thing’s for sure: any inhabitant of a parallel universe who doesn’t normally listen to U2 would dance to it like mad (or whatever you do instead of dancing in parallel universes) … and enjoy the tune mightily whilst doing so. So there you go: third requirement also met!

So here’s to you an iconic classic from 1981, friends, a cult record in the truest sense of the word, at least for me: eins-zwei-drei-vier and ….. enjoy!

Take good care,

Dirk from Sexyloser

mp3 : Liasons Dangereuses – Los Ninos Del Parque

(JC adds…………this one was totally new to me. And it is highly highly highly recommended!!!)

Lloyd Cole

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 72)

I wasn’t sure whether or not to include Lloyd Cole in this series. He was born and raised for much of his life south of the border, but his most formative years, musically at least, were spent in and around Glasgow and certainly you’d be hard pushed to find anyone who wouldn’t describe Lloyd Cole & The Commotions as a Scottish band.

When that band surprisingly broke up at the end of the 80s, it was no real shock that Polydor decided to keep on the frontman as a solo artist. I’m not sure however, if they would have been all that happy with the change in direction that he undertook with his debut solo material – there was a very clear move away from indie/pop leanings into stuff that alienated many of his fans. This in turn led to poorer sales, albeit many critics welcomed him as a great addition to the canon of serious (or po-faced if you want to be cruel) singer/songwriters. I think Lloyd himself was hoping to be embraced by America….but it just never really happened

He’s still going strong and remains a tremendous live act, more often than not just him, his guitar and his tales of life as a musician. A number of his more recent LPs have had a lot to offer in quality now that he’s moved away from that raaaaawwwwk phase of the early solo stuff. Being honest, if it wasn’t that I was such a fan of his voice, I wouldn’t have all that much to offer positively about the debut solo single from 1990:-

mp3 : Lloyd Cole – No Blue Skies

mp3 : Lloyd Cole – Shelly I Do

What I do highly recommend from the early era is this 12″ creepy and atmospheric remix of a single lifted from his 1992 LP Don’t Get Weird On Me Babe…it’s one that I have a second-hand promo copy of picked up very cheaply:-

mp3 : Lloyd Cole – Butterfly (The Planet Ann Charlotte Mix)

Enjoy.

Inspiral Carpets

IT GOT THERE IN THE END…

Joe was one of the earliest singles released by Inspiral Carpets back in 1989. It’s a cracking bit of music but it didn’t have much of an impact as the band at the time were on a small indie label and like so many other hard-working touring outfits of the era were making more money from the sales of t-shirts than they were from music sales.

Signed by Mute Records in 1990, they were quickly lumped in with the baggy/Madchester movement which did them absolutely no harm at all. Over the next five years they were prolific in output with four LPs and something like fifteen singles/EPs and although they never gained the popularity of the likes of the Mondays, Roses or indeed The Charlatans, there’s no arguing that they gave us some very fine tunes many of them featuring very catchy and distinctive retro-keyboards.

In 1995, the band released an album that brought together all of their singles and in support they re-released Joe some six years. It came in a number of different formats and with live and acoustic versions also available, was of enough interest to fans that they would part with their money and create enough sales to have Joe hit #37.

My own copy was courtesy of a bargain bin a few months later – the sticker tells me I paid 99p for the CD single, which isn’t bad value given that it also included a version of another of their chart hits (the song that as far as I know got Mark E Smith his one and only appearance on Top of The Pops) together with their cover of a cover-song.

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – Joe

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – I Want You

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – I’ll Keep It In Mind

mp3 : Inspiral Carpets – Tainted Love

The third of these tracks is another that was originally thrown away as an EP track in 1992 (and which unless you have been told in advance I’m sure you would argue is something that has been recorded by Julian Cope/The Teardrop Explodes) while Tainted Love was originally on Ruby Trax, a compilation released by the NME in 1992 to commemorate 40 years of publication, consisting of 40 cover versions of # 1 songs that had gone to #1 (hence my earlier cover of a cover comment).

Enjoy!!

OMD

A GREAT, OFTEN NEGLECTED, SYNTH-POP CLASSIC

This would have been one of the first synth-pop singles I’d have ever bought. I heard it on the radio and the keyboards reminded me of Magazine and Simple Minds. I also loved the sleeve which remains one or my favourite designs of Peter Saville and one of the few of his that wasn’t on Factory Records although Orchestral Manoeuvres In The Dark had previously been associated with that label.

The band would enjoy a golden period from 1981-84 with nine Top 20 hits in the UK, the best-known of which was Enola Gay, a song which arguably did as much as any boring history books to raise awareness of what had happened when the Americans dropped atomic bombs on two cities in Japan four decades previously – particularly in an era when many feared that the foreign and defence policies of US President Reagan and UK. Prime Minister Thatcher were taking us to the bring of the most catastrophic world war imaginable.

Messages was the single which preceded Enola Gay and on its release in May 1980 enjoyed a lengthy stay in the charts, climbing eventually to #13. The version I have in the cupboard is on 10″ vinyl:-

mp3 : OMD – Messages

mp3 : OMD – Taking Sides Again

mp3 : OMD – Waiting For The Man

The first of the b-sides is a rather decent and occasionally experimental sounding re-working version of the a-side while the other track is a tremendous cover of one of the best known tracks written and recorded by The Velvet Underground.

Messages was one of the first wave of synthpop/electronic hit records and that was because OMD became one of the first to take the music that was being written and recorded for these new instruments and machines and adapt it in a way that made it conducive for daytime radio. For proof, have a listen to how the song was recorded for a John Peel Session some six months before the single version was released:-

mp3 : OMD – Messages (Peel Session)

The session version is much slower in tempo….dare I suggest it has the feel of a Joy Division song?….and there’s just no way it being issued sounding akin to that would have brought a hit single. Full credit to all concerned.

National

BLUE JEANS AND CHINOS; COKE, PEPSI AND OREOS (Part 4)

A few years ago, any blogger who was featuring The National would probably have needed to provide all sorts of background information on a band that was seemingly destined for nothing more than critical acclaim. Three albums released between 2001 and 2005 sold in modest numbers.

Things changed a lot in 2007 with the release of Boxer. It topped all sorts of end of year polls and the band began to get a lot of mainstream exposure in the USA with regular appearances on the late night chat shows that pull in tens of millions of viewers. The LP didn’t crack the charts but instead sold enough copies over an extended period of time to provide The National with a much wider fan-base and so create a platform for a concerted crack at fame and fortune which duly came in 2010 with High Violet, a record that went Top 10 in the album charts the world over.

The career trajectory is similar to that experienced two decades ago by R.E.M.

Just as similarly, there is a bit of a backlash against the band with fans of old accusing them of selling-out and releasing material that is far inferior to that of the poorly-selling early years. This fan disagrees although will admit to being a wee bit let down by Trouble Will Find Me that was released at the beginning of 2013….and by the fact that the recent UK and Ireland tour completely omitted gigs in Scotland. I’m almost certain they will end up on the bill of T in the Park 2014 but that’s no consolation at all for those of us who hate festivals/outdoor gigs.

In the meantime, here’s my favourite single of theirs backed with an absolute belter of a song that was wasted as a mere b-side:-

mp3 : The National – Mistaken For Strangers

mp3 : The National – Blank Slate

Enjoy!

Sparklehorse

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT….WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (12)

I’m not really one for the greatest this and the greatest that. I’ve never been able to list my favourite albums of all time because it changes, I might be able to whittle it down to Ten Records that I will never part with – My favourite record of all time as I write is ‘Screamdelica’ by Primal Scream but only two weeks ago when I tried to rank them ‘Maxinquaye’ by Tricky was sitting on top the pile. Then again that pile included at 36, ‘Sebastopol Road’ by Mega City Four so I wouldn’t read anything into that. Although I can easily say that the best record three records I have heard this year are in order ‘Like Clockwork’ by Queens of the Stone Age, ‘Light Up Gold’ by Parquet Courts and ‘Random Access Memories’ by Daft Punk.

Singles or tracks are even harder. Although I have a general rule of thumb that I go by as to whether or not a song is great or not. The rule is this – That I can remember where I was when I first heard it. For instance, I was walking through Waterloo train station the first time I ever heard ‘Bitter Sweet Symphony’ by The Verve, I can remember what I was wearing (pretty much what I am wearing now – although not the same if you get my drift), what I was eating (avocado and tomato sandwich) and where I was going (Devon as it happens). It’s a song I love because it made my stop in my tracks, survey my surroundings and remember where I was. It happens every now and again. The first time I heard ‘Summer Babe’ by Pavement I was in Our Price in Chatham and I bought ‘Slanted and Enchanted’ right there and then and I got the phone number of the cute girl on the checkout (I was 16 it wouldn’t happen now).

Which brings us to Sparklehorse. The first time I heard this I was in Guildford in a shared house, and it came through the post for reviewing (student rag, not much cop). I looked forward to the bundle of CDs and vinyl that came through the post because you never what you might get.

Now, shortly before I begun to review, my flat mate starting having noisy, energetic and what sounded like very sweaty sex. It was off putting to say the least – I mean he wasn’t in the same room as me, but walls have ears and all that.

So I grabbed the first CD out of the parcel – rather like I have done in this series – and pulled out ‘Someday I will Treat you Good’. I didn’t even look at the CD, I just popped it in (rather like my flatmate I guess) and hit play and turned it up. I played it four times in a row (unlike my flatmate I guess, Boom Tish!). It is an incredible record and one that always brings a smile to my face. In my opinion Sparklehorse never topped it, others differ in that opinion but I can’t remember where I was the first time I heard any of their other records. I genuinely thought I had lost this CD and I can’t tell you how happy I am to have it back.

Sparklehorse revolved around the late great Mark Linkous – one of music great lost causes- and I remember that whilst on tour with Radiohead promoting the album on ‘Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot’ (on which today’s track features) that Linkous nearly died after a cocktail of drink and drugs he survived but lost the use of his legs (temporarily).

I saw them at the Reading Festival a few months later and he performed in a wheelchair. I think Sparklehorse released four actual albums and then collaborated with Dangermouse a bit. Sadly Mark Linkous committed suicide in 2010 and I remember feeling really sad about the loss. He was a brilliant musician and songwriter and Sparklehorse are a band that if you are not aware of I urge you to check them out.

A quick epitaph if you like, a friend of mine wrote an article on Mark Linkous for The Guardian (I think) and he ended it with the line – “Mark Linkous, he sparkled”. Which I thought was perfect.

mp3 : Sparklehorse – Someday I Will Treat You Good

Clash

THREE TUNES FROM BLACK MARKET CLASH

Black Market Clash was a 10″ mini-LP originally released only in North America in late 1980.

The nine songs were, in the main, b-sides of old singles released by The Clash and was targeted at those fans who had come to the band via the previous year’s release of London Calling. The inclusion of a previously unreleased cover version of a Booker T & the MGs track, as well as Robber Dub, which had been intended for the what proved to be the unreleased 12″ version of the single Bankrobber, meant there was a demand for the record here in the UK despite the expense involved in paying for an import.

My own copy of Black Market Clash is a later re-release in standard 12 ” form. I can’t recall actually buying this particular record and I don’t remember receiving it as a birthday or Christmas present. I’ve a very funny feeling that one day, when someone was tidying up the various record that were strewn carelessly around the living-room of the large student flat occupied in 84/85 in the south side of Glasgow (six officially shared the space with the same again not registered at the address) this record found its way into one of the boxes that held my vinyl rather than in the box of its rightful owner. All of us over the course of the ten months in that space lost and gained singles, LPs and cassettes unwittingly and by the time we had all moved on to our next separate places of abode (mine was in Edinburgh), it was too late. For instance, would discover that I had lost a couple of Orange Juice singles that I was later able to replace…I’m hoping that whichever flatmate originally owned Black Market Clash was able to do likewise.

Enough ramblings. Here’s three tracks from the record:-

mp3 : The Clash – Time Is Tight

mp3 : The Clash – Bankrobber/Robber Dub

mp3 : The Clash – Justice Tonight/Kick It Over

The last of these is a slightly shorter edit of the dub version of Armagideon Time originally released as the b-side to the 12″ single of London Calling.

Enjoy

A Witness

CULT CLASSIC : RED SNAKE by A WITNESS

A Witness were one of many bands that briefly appeared on my musical horizon in the mid 1980s who seemed to release one or two singles then disappeared. Rather obviously it was on John Peel’s show that I heard them, and I’m sure they did a session or two as well. Today’s track, Red Snake, was released as a 12″ single, not their first but by far and away their best. A relentless rather discordant jangly-guitar sound with a half-sneering half-shouty vocal. Absolutely no idea what the song is about, quite possibly a red snake, but then again maybe not. I’m 99.99% convinced it was never on Top of the Pops, and also did not trouble the Top 30 singles charts. Which is a great pity because it is quite magnificent. PLAY LOUD

And while putting this piece together, I looked at the rather obvious online source and discovered that, tragically, founding member and guitarist Rick Aitken died in a climbing accident in Scotland in 1989. The band disbanded shortly after. Between their formation and demise, 1982-89 they released one album, I Am John’s Pancreas, and 5 EPs, and one compilation album.

mp3 : A Witness – Red Snake

SUBMITTED FOR YOUR ENJOYMENT BY GEORGE FORSYTH WHOSE EXCELLENT BLOG ‘JIM McLEAN’S RABBIT’ CAN BEAD BY CLICKING HERE.

KLF

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 71)

If I was justified in my inclusion of The J.A.M.M’s in this series, then I’m surely OK with the inclusion of The KLF:-

mp3 : The KLF – Kylie Said To Jason

mp3 : The KLF – Pure Trance

A harmless and fun piece of 7£ vinyl from 1989. Little did any of us know that chart domination was just around the corner.

A few years ago I said that my ideal companions in a pun would be Tony Wilson and Bill Drummond. I would have just love to sat in their company and listened to what was being said about music, the arts and the world at large. Sadly, Tony is no longer with us but Bill still to this day, mainly through his books, continues to fascinate, amuse and entertain me.

Cure

ONE OF FAT BOB’S MORE UNUSUAL BIG HIT SINGLES

There’s been something like 40 singles released by The Cure over the years of which eleven have hit the UK Top 20 and could justifiably be called a big hit. Two of the best known are The Love Cats (1983) and In Between Days (1985) but the one single released in the period between those two was this from March 1984:-

mp3 : The Cure – The Caterpillar

It’s not an obvious hit single. It’s very unconventional and sounds in places as if it is a highly improvised and almost free-form piece of music to a lyric which in places is incredibly romantic in its imagery and at other times sounds like a childish nursery rhyme. From recollection, it got very little in the way of daytime radio exposure but such was the popularity of The Cure at the time that it soared to #14 in the singles chart.

The b-side of the single is also a strange but brilliantly gothic bit of music:-

mp3 : The Cure – Happy The Man

The 12″ version contained identical versions of those songs but with a bonus track which was altogether more poppy:-

mp3 : The Cure – Throw Your Foot

Enjoy!!

El Hombre Trajeado, Karelia, Mogwai, Yummy Fur

IN PRAISE OF GLASGOW

My home city is an extraordinary place. The local tourist board recently adopted a new marketing phrase ‘People make Glasgow’ which I was never really sure of. Too often some people in Glasgow leave me ashamed of the place. Too many indulge in sectarianism behaviour, violence, casual racism and begging to indulge their drink/drugs habits. ‘People make Glasgow’ was a phrase that could all too easily backfire.

But the reaction to the tragedy of the helicopter crash on Friday 29 November and its aftermath has ensured that the new slogan is being seen in a positive light. That so many casual passers-by rushed to the aid of those trapped inside the building without giving a thought to the potential danger they were putting themselves in was something that everyone seems to have commented on and civic leaders and other politicians were quick to associate these actions with the new slogan.

This tragic event happened when I was on holiday and it was only the next morning when I switched on the mobile phone did I pick up on what had happened. I had a genuine sick to the stomach feeling as The Clutha was a pub I had the occasional drink in and was a place that some friends were in the habit of going to of an evening. Thankfully, from my perspective, those friends were elsewhere that night although I’ve since learned that a colleague from my old workplace was inside, and while he escaped any serious physical injury he is unsurprisingly suffering from stress and is very traumatized. I wish him, and everyone who was caught up in the tragedy, a full and timely recovery.

I thought it appropriate to have these four songs posted today:-

mp3 : Mogwai – I Can’t Remember

mp3 : El Hombre Trajeado – Neoprene

mp3 : The Yummy Fur – Shivers

mp3 : The Karelia – New Year In New York

These tracks comprised the Glasgow EP, released on the Plastic Cowboy label back in 2000. It was one of a series issued by the label in which they took four singers/bands from a city or region and put out 2 x 7″ singles in a sleeve that had some very weird images of each place. The Glasgow EP was followed by efforts from Liverpool, Oxford, Essex and Tokyo (and came two years after The London EP which featured, among others, Hefner and Spearmint).

The tracks are, for the most part, abit experimental and ones for connoisseurs of each of the acts and not the most commercial pieces of music ever committed to vinyl, but are all worth a listen.

Mogwai are the best-known of the four, while El Hombre Trajaedo were a band that most Glasgow gig-goers will have caught at least once in their lifetime such was their level of activity and willingness to work with and support many better-known names.

The two band on the other 7″ – The Yummy Fur and The Karelia – had personnel who would in subsequent years would find fame and some fortune in Franz Ferdinand. There is a hint of FF in both of the featured tracks. The vocalist in The Yummy Fur was John McKeown who some of you might know as the frontman of the under-rated 1990’s who released a couple of very good indie-pop LPs in the latter half of the last decade.

Enjoy!!

Care, Lightning Seeds

MORE CULT CLASSICS…

I mentioned them in passing just 48 hours ago and couldn’t resist the temptation to re-tell the story.

Care was primarily a coming together of Ian Broudie and Paul Simpson.

The former is best known as the man behind The Lightning Seeds, but he’s been part of the music scene in his native Liverpool since the late 70s, initially as part of the new wave band Big In Japan (who also featured Holly Johnson who found fame with Frankie Goes To Hollywood and Bill Drummond, likewise with The KLF).

I remember hearing their debut single one evening on either the David Jensen or Janice Long show on Radio 1 and being knocked out by what was then a pretty unusual and distinctive mix of acoustic guitars and synthesisers. I tracked the record down the following day.

It was on a major label – Arista Records. The production team was Clive Langer & Alan Winstanley who at the time were probably the biggest name producers in the UK. But despite considerable airplay in the evenings, it didn’t make the then crucial A-list at Radio 1 and the single faded into obscurity.

The follow-up single was a Kingbird production, which was one of the names that Broudie used. It also flopped.

Single number three did the same, despite at least one TV promo slot on the Oxford Road Show (I know this as I still have the clip on VHS tape).

Care then broke up in the summer of 1984 without bothering to release their debut album which only then saw the light of day in 1997 as a CD entitled Diamonds & Emeralds. The band were referred to as Care featuring Ian Brodie.

The cash-in was of course completely cynical as it came hot on the heels of The Lightning Seeds biggest success with the football anthem Three Lions that was adopted by the supporters of England during their hosting of Euro 96.

But if a small handful of those who were new to Broudie’s talents were drawn to this album by association, they would hopefully have found much to enjoy.

And here are the afore-mentioned three singles in the order that they were released:-

mp3 : Care – My Boyish Days (drink to me)
mp3 : Care – Flaming Sword
mp3 : Care – Whatever Possessed You

The first two are the 12″ versions.

Flaming Sword was later re-recorded om 1992 by The Lightning Seeds as the b-side to their Top 40 single Sense. And here it is:-

mp3 : The Lightning Seeds – Flaming Sword

Not much difference you’ll find which shows either the 1983 recording was ahead of its time or the 1992 recording was immediately retro. Whatever. I just think its a great pop song that should have been a massive hit.

Oh and if any of you out there have a 12″ copy of Whatever Possessed You and would like it to go to a good home alongside many other pieces of vinyl, then I’d be delighted to offer said home….

Enjoy!!

Babylon Zoo, Soho, Spaceman 3

FROM THE SOUTH-WEST CORRESPONDENT….WHAT’S IN YOUR BOX (11)

Two things.

Firstly I need to apologise to my sister for in the moments before writing this article I destroyed one of her most precious possessions (Probably).

Secondly I’ve cheated again. The attached song was not pulled out of the box today – but that will be revealed why and I am pretty sure you will all understand.

Now regular readers will know that back in week two I stated that someone might have been tampering with the CDs in this box. I now know that person was my sister, and that at least one of her CDs found its way into this box as it was one I pulled out today. Before that however, I pulled out two cassette singles (or cassingles as nobody ever called them – and fact fans the only ‘cassingle’ that I ever bought was Hippy Chick by Smiths sampling band Soho, and that was because it was 5p).

The two cassingles in the box also belonged to my sister. The first one was by actor turned singer turned actor turned reality TV star, Joey Lawrence, who was the least funny character in the terminally unfunny American Sitcom ‘Blossom’. He played a male called ‘Joey’ in it. I didn’t play it in fact it sits in the bin in my kitchen right now just under the latest dirty nappy that I have changed.

The second one, well the second one was and it troubles me to even write it… More Than Words by Extreme, a song so bland that it came fourth in the ‘Most bland song ever written’ contest. It’s so bland it couldn’t even come first.

It’s also a song which I detest and so in a pique of rage and utter fury I did the only thing befitting it. I placed it in the road outside and then reversed the car over it at least nineteen times. The weather this morning in Devon is wet and miserable, a bit like ‘More Than Words’. Literally. After I had finished I remembered slowly that this was in fact the first dance at my sisters wedding and a small tinge of guilt crept through me – she might have actually wanted that tape. So if your reading, which I doubt…….sorry sis.

A couple of weeks ago I briefly wrote about hyped bands and the CD underneath the tapes is a really good example of hype turning very quickly into nonsense, for it was Spaceman by Babylon Zoo – a song which featured on a Levi’s commercial and went all the way to Number One.

Levi’s PR team were very clever, because they knew the truth. The song on the advert started with a speeded up vocal and it sounded terrific, new, and exciting. Sadly when the speeded up voice slowed down and Jas Mann (for that was his name, and still is I guess) was singing properly, he had a voice which made a noise similar to the one a walrus makes when pleasuring itself………..And that, people, was the truth that Levi’s knew.

Yet they let us believe something completely different so they could sell jeans. The clever bastards. It wasn’t new, terrific and exciting it was, well, a bit shit. I thought about posting the song, I hit the rip button and it stopped at 60% and the computer just refused to copy it. My machine may be older than most of One Direction, but man it has taste. So I searched by music files and I attach something by Spaceman 3, kind of related but simply in another galaxy in terms of greatness – in my opinion, they are one of the most inspirational bands of my generation.

I had to cheat again, I was worried that the next CD might be Bad Boys Inc or worst still Bon Jovi, so I pulled out the next five and glanced at them. One (next weeks) bought a massive smile to my face, as its honestly one of the best five singles ever released there was also one record that JC will love and one that will bring a smile to the face of regular commenter The Robster. There was no Bon Jovi. Well not yet anyway.

mp3 : Spaceman 3 – Big City

Bye for now

S-WC

Note(s) from JC

#1 : Just in case some of you aren’t familiar with the sound of a walrus pleasuring itself:-

mp3 : Babylon Zoo – Spaceman

(courtesy of a CD single that was bought as a present for Mrs Villain who liked the single and fancied the singer)

#2 : Proof that a 5p cassingle can be great value:-

mp3 : Soho – Hippychick

(courtesy of the 12″ vinyl copy that sits in the cupboard – loved the idea of a Johnny Marr riff being on the dance charts)

#3 : Hit songs that I detest so much that I would gladly do as S-WC did and reverse a car over them at least 19 times…..well I would if I could drive.

Toploader – Dancing In The Moonlight

Nickelback – How You Remind Me

Keane – every fucking song they’ve ever released…..and all covers versions as well.

What about you folk out there???????

Wild Swans

SHARE YOUR FAVOURITE CULT CLASSIC……

Another start to what might turn into a regular series….but that will depend on you dear readers!

I want to invite contributions on your favourite cult single(s). I’ll leave the definition as wise as possible but ideally it should be a 45 that was released on an indie-label, from a band or singer who never enjoyed mainstream success and is a piece of music that in a parallel universe would have been a smash hit and made a fortune for the composer and/or performer(s).

All you have to do is put together a few paras and if possible, a link to where I can get a hold of the song to make it available to listen to on T(n)VV just in case it is one that I don’t have in my vinyl/CD collection. You can put your name to the contribution or you can make it anonymous. I am hoping this will capture enough of your imaginations to get the ball rolling on a lengthy series of postings that I would aim to feature on Sundays, the one day a week that I currently don’t have any postings. The e-mail details are on the right hand side of the blog.

I want to get things rolling with a single from 1982. It came out on the short lived Zoo Records which had been established in Liverpool principally as a vehicle for Bill Drummond to release songs by his band Big In Japan. Revolutionary Spirit b/w God Forbid was the final 45 released on Zoo and came with the catalogue number Cage 009. It was released on 12″ vinyl only

The Wild Swans were based around the talents of Paul Simpson (vocals) , Jeremy Kelly (guitar), Ged Quinn (keyboards), James Weston (bass) and Justin Stavely (drums). One of Paul’s mates was Pete de Freitas of Echo & the Bunnymen who was so taken by the band that he paid for the recording of this single. He also, under the alias of Louis Vincent (which were his middle names) ended up producing the record and drumming on it after the original drummer left the band (as did the original bass player).

It’s an incredible piece of music, packed with all sorts of sounds and influences that dominated indie music in the early 80s with a production that owes something to the wall of sound associated with Phil Spector. Despite Zoo Records folding not long after the single was issued (which in all likelihood contributed to the near-impossibility of finding it in any record shop outside of Merseyside), the band were asked to do sessions for different DJs on Radio 1.

Artistic differences soon led to a split – Kelly and Quinn would find a small amount of success with The Lotus Eaters who hit the Top 20 with The First Picture Of You while Simpson would team up with the then relatively unknown Ian Broudie to form Care, a band that released three fantastic but flop singles (all of which are candidates for inclusion in any series on cult singles) before calling it a day.

Kelly, Quinn and Simpson would later reform as a MkII version of The Wild Swans in the second half of the 80s, again to some critical acclaim but little commercial success, although the band members have since said the production was disappointing and more what the record label wanted than they did as musicians. But then again when you’ve recorded something as majestic and memorable as this, everything else is bound to be a bit of a letdown:-

mp3 : The Wild Swans – Revolutionary Spirit

mp3 : The Wild Swans – God Forbid

So….if any of you want to share your thoughts and memories of a cult single (and no, that doesn’t mean I want a piece on She Sells Sanctuary), then feel free to drop me a line.

King Creosote

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SINGLE (Part 70)

From wiki:-

Kenny Anderson, known primarily by his stage name King Creosote, is an independent singer-songwriter from Fife, Scotland. To date, Anderson has released over forty albums, with his latest, That Might Well Be It, Darling, released in 2013. Anderson is also a member of Scottish-Canadian band, The Burns Unit. In 2011, Anderson’s collaborative album with Jon Hopkins, Diamond Mine, was nominated for the Mercury Prize.

Anderson’s brothers are also musicians: Ian Anderson (known as Pip Dylan) and Gordon Anderson (Lone Pigeon) – who is lead singer and main songwriter with The Aliens. The three frequently collaborate at live shows and on album releases.

After having featured in Scottish bands Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra and Khartoum Heroes, in 1995 Kenny Anderson launched the Fence record label and began recording albums under the name King Creosote.

Anderson founded Fence Records alongside Johnny Lynch, but stepped back from day-to-day running of the label in 2010.

In recent years, Anderson has teamed up with Domino Records who have co-released some of his albums. He also spent some time on Warner subsidiary, 679, which gave him major label backing for the first time. His increasing frustration with the music industry and how digital recordings are becoming throwaway commodities led him to release his material in small, vinyl only runs which were largely only available at concerts.

To this end, KC Rules OK was re-released in 2006 with different versions of some songs, and a version of the album called “Chorlton and the Wh’earlies” recorded with The Earlies was available with some purchases. Bombshell was released with an additional disc, a DVD film of King Creosote and friends on tour.

In a June 2008 interview on BBC 6 Music, mistakenly introduced as “King Creole”, he told Tom Robinson that he’d like to play a festival every weekend this summer and then return home for the weekdays.

In the 2007 film Hallam Foe two of his songs, “The Someone Else” and “King Bubbles in Sand”, were featured.

In late 2009, Anderson released a new studio album Flick the Vs, and crafted a performance only album, entitled My Nth Bit of Strange in Umpteen Years. Anderson also contributed to the Cold Seeds collaborative album along with Frances Donnelly of Animal Magic Tricks, and Neil Pennycook and Pete Harvey from Meursault; which was released on the Edinburgh-based indie label Song, By Toad Records. Anderson, Donnelly and Pennycook all wrote songs for the project, which all four performers then recorded together; each singer often taking the lead vocal role on a song written by another of the artists. The album was given a special limited release at the Fence Records Homegame Festival in Anstruther, Fife in March 2010, before a general release was announced for June 2010.

In 2011, Anderson attended the SxSW Music Festival and played a number of shows, two of which featured fellow Scottish attendees Kid Canaveral as his backing band. The same year, Anderson released Diamond Mine, a collaborative album with electronica composer Jon Hopkins, to critical acclaim. The album was nominated for the Mercury Prize, with Anderson stating, “It feels like this is the beginning of something. And to feel that so far down the line, after putting out forty effing albums, oh my God! It means, I can still do this, it’s not over.” The duo subsequently released an EP, Honest Words.

In 2013, Anderson released That Might Well Be It, Darling, a full-band re-recording of his limited edition vinyl album, That Might Be It, Darling.

And from the 679 era back in 2007:-

mp3 : King Creosote – You’ve No Clue Do You?

mp3 : King Creosote – Faux Call

7″ single. Catalogue # NAMES 27.

Enjoy.

Happy Mondays

LAZING IN LANZAROTE WEEK : STUFF FROM THE OLD PLACE : FRIDAY

From July 2008

BETTER THAN W.B YEATS AS A POET?

Tony Wilson once made the claim that Shaun Ryder was a better poet than William Butler Yeats, and that in the fullness of time, he’d come to be regarded every much as talented a genius as Mozart.

I’m sure my dear friend Greer, who, in addition to making fabulous weekly contributions to the Contrast Podcast, writes an equally fabulous poetry blog called A Sweet Unrest, would be horrified at such a comparison, but I do suspect Tony’s tongue, and not for the first time, was parked right into his cheek.

Having said that, the opening four lines to Kinky Afro, in which a dad directly addresses his young offspring, are as good as any representation of misogynist and unreconstructed man I’ve ever read in my life:-

Son, I’m 30
I only went with your mother cos she’s dirty
And I don’t have a decent bone in me
What you get is just what you see, yeah.

And as much as I love Kinky Afro, not just for the lyrics but the catchy tune that immediately makes me want to get off my backside and dance, there is no better Happy Mondays song than the opening track to their 1989 LP, Bummed:-

mp3 : Happy Mondays – Wrote For Luck

A truly astonishing bit of music, and the only thing that stopped it making the 45 45s at 45 rundown the other month was that I missed out on it when it originally appeared as a single. I only heard it a couple of months afterwards courtesy of it being included on a compilation tape made up for me by my old friend Jacques the Kipper (older readers might remember that JtK often left comments in the early days of TVV…he’s now too busy being a modern dad to stop by and say hi…..)

But having missed out first time around, I made sure I picked up the single when it was given the remix treatment and re-released a few months later. And as much as I love the original, produced to perfection by Martin Hannett, there are days when I prefer one or other of these mixes:-

mp3 : Happy Mondays – W.F.L. (the Vince Clarke Mix)
mp3 : Happy Mondays – W.F.L. (Think About The Future)

Vince Clarke is of course, the electro-pop superstar who had made the Top 10 with four different acts – Depeche Mode, The Assembly, Yazoo and Erasure – as well as releasing a single with the mighty Paul Quinn.

Think About The Future was a mix made by an up and coming DJ and mixer called Paul Oakenfold, who went on to become one of the biggest phenomena of the 90s – maybe ctelblog at Acid Ted can fill us all in properly….

Anyways, the inspiration for this posting is merely that on the train to work yesterday morning, feeling a bit low as I was going to be stuck indoors on one of the few warm and dry days we’ve had in Glasgow this past month or so, the original version of Wrote For Luck came round on shuffle on the i-pod.

Instant happiness without the need to ingest drugs or alcohol.

Oh and I got up from my seat, stood near the exit door and did a little dance (in my head it was a big dance – all Bez moves and shapes – but in reality I only sort of moved my head from side to side and tried hard not to sing along in case I scared the passengers).

Maybe Tony was slightly wrong about Shaun’s poetic abilities, but alongside his brother and his mates in the band, you can’t argue against the claim that he was one helluva songwriter…..

2013 Update

Shaun Ryder has since come to the attention of a much wider audience thanks to his exploits in the 2010 TV reality series ‘I’m A Celebrity….Get Me Out Of Here!’. His autobiography. Twisting My Melon, was the published to great critical acclaim in 2011, acclaim that was entirely justified.

mp3 : Happy Mondays – Kinky Afro

Enjoy.

Bill Bailey & Billy Bragg, Billy Bragg

LAZING IN LANZAROTE WEEK : STUFF FROM THE OLD PLACE : THURSDAY

One of the things I was most proud of at the old place was just how many folk were prepared to respond to my requests for guest postings. I’m intending to dig out a number of these over the upcoming Christmas/New Year period as there were some really fabulous bits of writing and fantastic tales that should be shared again. For now, I’m going back to February 2008 and a wonderful contribution from ctel who is best know for the blog Acid Ted.

His blog must be just about the best out there in terms of his knowledge of and passion for dance music and club sounds. But his tastes in music are waaaaaay wider than he writes about on Acid Ted. Here’s some evidence:-

TVV and I have a shared love of the Bard of Barking – Billy Bragg. If there were any justice on this world, Billy would be the UK’s Poet Laureate. But there isn’t, so he isn’t.

A favourite live track is his track A13 – an unlovely road running from East London to the Essex Coast. This is done in a combination of the music of Route 66 and the romanticism of early Bruce Springsteen. The V&A site even has an article from Billy about the A13. Worth reading in full.

But here is an extract:

One of the fondest memories of my childhood concerns the time my father let me drive his green Morris Oxford very, very slowly across the field that served as a car park behind the beach. It was my first ever driving lesson and it ended abruptly when I nervously stamped the brake pedal down to the floor and father banged his head on the windscreen.

I must have been about twelve years old yet I can still feel the leather of the driver’s seat warm on my bare back and hear the bonk as father, sitting half-sideways and caught unawares, hit the Triplex hard. What great days. Every visit we would buy a plastic football and lose it before we went home and sometimes, if the tide was out, my little brother and I would walk almost to Holland it seemed, watched over through parental binoculars as we jumped in the puddles all the way back.

Shoeburyness. That name brings back memories of days spent far away from the cares of home, when everything was fun except bedtime. The beaches are still there but the green Morris Oxford has gone the way of so many precious things and I shall never see it again. Me and my dad have joined the Saxons and the Peasants Revolt in history but the A13 is still there, rolling through a Springsteenesque landscape in which riverine Essex takes the place of the New Jersey shore, a tarmacadam trail to the Promised Land.

Billy is a witty performer and not above poking fun at his own earnest reputation. A favourite is Unisex Chipshop with Billy and Bill Bailey performing at Glastonbury 2004 what Billy clams is his son’s favourite track.

“I used to buy my chips from an oppressive chip shop regime.

The girl who worked there she seemed happy but I knew it was not what it seemed

“Do you want salt and vinegar?” was what they made her say

But in the language of the ghetto that means “Help! I’m a woman in chains”

I used to see her. In my dreams I would see her running naked through the woods round Rainham

If I had some tigers I’d train them.

To protect her. From the sexual fascism that was lurking…

round the gherkins!

I leaned across the counter and we would talk.

I carved her name – Debbie – on a little wooden fork

But into the shop came a skinhead gang

They snatched the fork from my hand

Debbie she looked at me

To assert my masculinity

I said “OI!”

They said “WHAT!”

I said “…nothing”

You can buy BB themed stuff from his website

mp3 : Billy Bragg – A13, Trunk Road To The Sea
mp3 : Bill Bailey & Billy Bragg – Unisex Chip Shop (live – Glastonbury 27 June 2004)

———–

I added my own PS to that post:-

ctelblog has just captured what I, and so many others love about BB. If you don’t already own it, then The Progressive Patriot, his book about Englishness is essential reading, as is the hugely-readable and often enlightening BB bio by Andrew Collins.

And here’s a (formerly) hard to find version of the song ctelblog has brought to everyone’s attention:-

mp3 : Billy Bragg – A13, Trunk Road To The Sea (Peel Session, 27 July 1983)

Enjoy.

Aberfeldy, Belle & Sebastian, Smittens, Talulah Gosh

LAZING IN LANZAROTE WEEK : STUFF FROM THE OLD PLACE : WEDNESDAY

A little bit of background to today’s piece of nostalgia.

It was written in September 2007 at a time when I was around halfway through a four month work secondment to Toronto. I had planned to keep the old blog update on a daily basis but found that having messed up copying files to a back-up drive that I had very few songs with me that I could link to. I was only managing a post every three or four days at best but it was a great trade off for what was turning out to be the experience of a lifetime.

WORK IS A FOUR LETTER WORD

Although the hours are long, I’m still enjoying the work I’m doing over here in Toronto, and trying not to get depressed by thinking too much about going back to the dead-end job awaiting me in Glasgow.

I’ve also become aware that an old (but not in the age-sense) friend is also having some work concerns of her own which I hope are resolved to her satisfaction ASAP. In the meantime, I’ve had an idea which may solve both of our work-related dilemmas. I’ m sure she and many of you regular readers out there will want to come a join me in a new venture – one that will one day rival and indeed surpass the popularity of Hard Rock Cafe.

Ladies and Gentlemen. Homos, Hetros and Metros. Why not spend some of your cash at Tearooms Most Twee??

Forget oversize steaks, burgers and king-size french fries. Put away your desires for sundaes and free refill sodas. Come to Tearooms Most Twee for cakes, cucumber sandwiches and french fancies. Feast your eyes on trifle and pots and pots of tea of all varieties, all served on antique wooden tables covered with the finest of lace.

The walls will not be covered with garish memorabilia. Only the finest of wallpaper from the catalogues of Laura Ashley.

Your ears will not be assaulted by the shrieks and wails of long-haired men wearing ultra-tight spandex backed by ugly folk pulling faces as their fingers move up and down the fretboard of their guitars. Instead, an old fashioned Dansette record player will be used to bring you sounds such as these:-

song : Belle & Sebastian – Dog On Wheels
song : Tallulah Gosh – Beatnik Boy
song : Aberfeldy – Summer’s Gone
song : The Smittens – Doomed, Lo-Fi & In Love

At least once a week, Tearooms Most Twee will have a live acoustic performance from Duglas BMX Bandit. Occasionally, it will also have theme nights – maybe something for The Goths where the music will be different and there will a DVD of Batman Begins on show. But the Laura Ashley wallpaper and lace-covered tables will be permanent.

Care to join me?

2013 Update

The scary thing is that there’s a couple of places opened up in Glasgow this past 18 months or so whose business model isn’t all that far removed from that I suggested for Tearooms Most Twee – albeit they do also have licences to serve alcohol. These establishments seem to be doing very well which means I really have missed a trick…

Oh and just to clear things up. I returned to Glasgow in December 2007 and to that dreadful dead-end job. Luckily, I was rescued by an alternative offer just a couple of months later for something much more satisfying. I’m still there now and can see me being there for many more years to come.

Enjoy.

Arrested Development, Jazz Butcher, Psychic TV, Rockingbirds

LAZING IN LANZAROTE WEEK : STUFF FROM THE OLD PLACE : TUESDAY

STEP BACK IN TIME (First posted in April 2007)

From L-R : Andy Rourke, Morrissey, JC and Johnny Marr.

If only………..

It’s actually the cover of a quite brilliant birthday present given to me back in 1993 by Jacques the Kipper.

At the time in our lives, we were in the habit of exchanging C90s around every two months, made up of stuff that we thought the other would like, or old things that we were listening to again after a period of time.

Mostly, it would involve handing over a tape with nothing written on it, and an A4 sheet of paper that contained cryptic clues (e.g. – Vodka was the single word for Smells Like Teen Spirit which JtK shoved on a tape a good two months before it went massive).

But for the momentous occasion of my 30th birthday, and to mark the day when I felt I was officially old, my mucker got me honorary membership of my favourite band and typed out the full track listing without testing my knowledge:-

Reggae Kray Do You Know My Name side

1. Candy Everybody Wants – 10,000 Maniacs
2. Godstar – Psychic TV
3. Pleasantly Surprised – The Soup Dragons
4. Half Of Everything – Lloyd Cole
5. Dollar Bill – Screaming Trees
6. Wish You Were Here – Darlingheart
7. Message In The Box – World Party
8. Jonathan, Jonathan – The Rockingbirds
9. Fire Away – James
10. Doomed – Julian Cope
11. Summer Fun In A Beat-Up Datsun – Cornershop
12. Grey Cortina – Tom Robinson Band

That Toke Isn’t Funny Anymore side

1. Subterranean Homesick Blues – Little Big Band
2. The Mating Game – The Monochrome Set
3. Southern Mark Smith – The Jazz Butcher
4. Circle Line – Rodney Allen
5. You’ve Got Me Thinking – The Beloved
6. For What It’s Worth – Oui 3
7. People Everyday – Arrested Development
8. Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat) – Digible Planets
9. Call It What You Want – Credit To The Nation
10. Who Do You Think You Are? – Saint Etienne
11. Birthday (Tommy D mix) – Sugarcubes

The thing that I’ve just realised is that at the time, I was making a serious attempt to pass my driving test (unsuccessfully), and JtK has thrown in a couple of motor-related bits of fun at the end of the first side.

I probably listened to this tape right through on a daily basis for the best part of a month – it was in the days when I was commuting daily from Glasgow to Edinburgh with only a Sony Walkman to keep my sanity, and there were only so many tapes you could keep in your suit pockets.

As with the mp3s that I download nowadays, I took the view that if I really liked a song on a JtK tape, then I’d go out and buy it, and I reckon I’ve probably got 14 out of these 23 tracks on CD or vinyl. But of the 5,000 or so songs that I’ve now got on the i-pod, I reckon there’s only three of these, and none of them are on any favourite especially made playlists.

I suppose the point I’m trying to clumsily make is that back in 1993, I listened to these songs a helluva lot, but nowadays they hardly feature – although I still like just about everything on the tape. As such, I’m equally certain that much of the new stuff I’ve been buying in recent weeks will hardly be listened to in 2020 (assuming I last that long).

But I do hope that somehow, by the time I’m approaching my 60th birthday in 2023, I’ll still be a regular in music stores such as Avalanche and Fopp, buying what’s fresh, lively and new, having heard it first on whatever it is that has replaced music blogs…..

And now, for your amusement, here’s some of the stuff I was listening to in June 1993:-

mp3 : Psychic TV – Godstar
mp3 : The Rockingbirds – Jonathan, Jonathan
mp3 : The Jazz Butcher – Southern Mark Smith
mp3 : Arrested Development – People Everyday

It hasn’t always been jingly-jangly pop my whole life you know……(but then I sort of gave that away with yesterday’s blast from the past)