THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Seven)

R-155353-1346517723-2930

It’s Alright was released on 26th June 1989. It was the third single to be lifted from Introspective.

The timing of this release always seemed strange. It had been seven months since the previous single. The album from which it was taken had dropped out of the charts a month previously. Was there really any demand for it as a 45?

It turned out there was, as it went straight in at #5. It managed to hold its position in the Top 10 for a few weeks thanks in part to the marketing campaign which had involved the initial 26th June release being on six formats – 7″, 7″ limited edition sleeve, 12″, 12″ limited edition sleeve, compact disc and cassette single – that was followed up by a 10″ version on 3rd July and a 12″ remix on 10th July.

All told, including the remixes, there were six versions of It’s Alright across the various singles, none of which were identical to the version that could be found on Introspective. No wonder the people in charge of compiling the charts soon put restrictions on the multi-format method of boosting sales. I’m not entirely sure how much involvement Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe had with all of this, or whether it was down entirely to the label bosses.

It’s Alright was a cover song, although it very much sounded like a PSB original. It was originally written and recorded in 1987 by Sterling Void & Paris Brightledge, the former being one of the prominent DJs within the ever-increasing and influential scene associated with Chicago house music. The first version that PSB recorded was more than nine minutes long and closed off Introspective. The 7″ version was remixed and had the addition of an additional verse that addressed environmental concerns, but was edited right down to a little over four minutes in length.

7″ Limited Edition

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – It’s Alright
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – One Of The Crowd
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Your Funny Uncle

The standard edition of the 7″ didn’t include Your Funny Uncle.

The two b-sides are a total contrast.

One Of The Crowd has, unusually, Chris on lead vocal, albeit he uses a vocoder as a partial disguise. The tune has always reminded a bit of one of those big hits from Adamski.

Your Funny Uncle is a piano-led ballad and a bit of a tear-jerker based on a true story. Neil wrote the lyric after attending the funeral of a friend who had died from AIDS. It’s not the usual b-side, but it is one of their loveliest numbers.

“All the details are true: the cars in slow formation, and so on. He did have an uncle, who had been in the army all of his life and suddenly found himself at the funeral of his evidently gay nephew who’d died of Aids. I think it must have been quite a difficult situation for him, but he was really nice and dignified and spoke to all of his nephew’s friends. I had to give a reading, and the bit I read was from the book of Revelations…at the end it says there’s somewhere where there’s no pain or fear, and I found it a really moving piece of prose, and attached it to the end of the song.”

The success of It’s Alright returned Introspective to the Top 40 of the album charts after a couple of months outside the listings. The album’s highest placing was #2, the third time in a row a PSB album had just come up short in attempts to dislodge an 80s mega-seller (Brothers In Arms – Dire Straits; Bad – Michael Jackson; Rattle and Hum – U2). Would the luck change as a new decade dawned?

JC

Thrum

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #345: THRUM

290150090_374638717989492_5530749007093629481_n

The idea when I started off this series was to use Saturdays a sort of off-day by just cutting and pasting from elsewhere. It hasn’t always worked out that way, but today’s words come fully from wiki:-

Thrum was formed in 1992 by Johnny Smillie (guitar, vocals), Dave McGowan (bass guitar, vocals), Gary Johnston (drums), and Monica Queen (vocals, guitar). Smillie had met Queen while she was singing in a youth theatre performance of Godspell, and she had previously sung in a Christian rock band. Smillie was strongly influenced by Neil Young while Queen cited Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette as influences.

They signed to Fire Records at the start of 1993, and Fire issued their début self-titled EP in April 1993. Singles “So Glad” (which they performed on The Word) and “Here I Am” were critically well-received, and they recorded their début album Rifferama in San Francisco.“Purify” was taken from the album as the band’s final single;

They split up in 1995. Queen went on to provide guest vocals on Belle & Sebastian’s “Lazy Line Painter Jane” single in 1997, recorded duets with The Jayhawks, Grant Lee Buffalo and Shane MacGowan, and performed with Snow Patrol in Glasgow (June 2010). In addition to her guest vocal work, Queen signed to Creeping Bent and spent the 2000s as a solo artist (with Smillie still on guitar), releasing an EP in 2000 and albums in 2001 and 2004.

The band reformed after a 16-year hiatus in 2011, and released a new album, Elettrorama, and making a live appearance at that year’s T in the Park festival. Ian Greher replaced McGowan on bass guitar, following the latter’s decision not to take part in the reunion. In May 2013, with Rory McGregor now on bass, Thrum released a two track single All Over Again on new label Mecca Holding Co, and the band continue sporadic live appearances, concurrent to Queen’s solo activities.

Here’s the debut single:-

mp3 : Thrum – So Glad

JC

UNKLE

MY FAVOURITE IAN BROWN VOCAL

R-4427-1247171965

I’ve never really thought that much of Ian Brown‘s singing prowess. The relative lack of Stone Roses postings over the years should be something of a giveaway.

But I am very fond of something he contributed to back in the late 90s.

From allmusic:-

Since its 1992 inception, UNKLE has been the primary musical outlet of James Lavelle. The co-founder of Mo’ Wax, one of the most consequential English independent labels of the ’90s, Lavelle has been joined by a carousel of primary collaborators and an ever-changing array of guest contributors who have helped him indulge in styles ranging from sample-based hip-hop to downcast stoner rock.

In the mid-late 90s, UNKLE consisted solely of Lavelle and DJ Shadow, but they came up with the concept of bring in a whole host of guest musicians and singers for the debut studio album. Recorded over a two-year period, Psyence Fiction appeared in August 1998, and across its twelve tracks you could enjoy the vocal talents of, among others, Richard Ashcroft, Badly Drawn Boy, Mike D (Beastie Boys) and Thom Yorke.

The album was well received and sold enough copies to reach #4 in the UK charts despite not containing any hit singles. Be There, released in February 1999, as a stand-alone single, was a remix of the album track Unreal with a new vocal, written and sung by Ian Brown.

mp3: UNKLE – Be There

It’s a wonderful piece of trip-hop and Brown’s understated delivery, keeping himself well within his range, is a perfect addition.

Be There was released on 2 x CD singles and on 12″ vinyl. The copy I have is CD1 and its two additional tracks consist of a remix and instrumental remix of the single:-

mp3 : UNKLE – Be There (Underdog Remix)
mp3 : UNKLE – Be There (Underdog Instrumental)

Underdog is the alias of Trevor Jackson, someone who is very active currently in design, art and fashion but in the 90s was responsible for remixing hundreds of songs across all sorts of genres.

This was the bonus track on CD2.

mp3: UNKLE – The Knock (On Effect)

The Knock (Drums Of Death Part 2) was a track on Psyence Fiction, and featured Mike D on vocal on a track he had co-written with DJ Shadow. The remix is very radical and is the work of Noel Gallagher who also contributed his guitar licks which were added to a sample of drums from a Led Zeppelin track. It’s a track that actually wouldn’t have sounded out of place on a Beastie Boys album and is a bit of a hidden gem.

(and yes, the timing of this one is deliberate after yesterday’s posting)

JC

Seahorses

IT REALLY WAS A CRACKING DEBUT SINGLE (72) ??

R-975239-1363041539-2675

I’m sure there are some folk out there who reckon Love Is The Law is a cracking piece of music, and would argue that it certainly merits a place in this occasional series. Indeed, given that this debut 45 went all the way to #3 in the UK singles chart, there might be quite a lot of you think along those lines.

Don’t count me in.

Yes, I did buy a copy back in either late April or early May 1997. From recollection, it was part of a promotional offer in Virgin Records (or it might have been HMV) where you could get three chart singles for £5. Looking at the Top 30 rundown that week, I’m thinking the others in the bundle could well have been Lovefool by The Cardigans, and Where Are They Now? by Gene. I’d probably be lucky to get 5p if I put them on e-bay today.

I would have heard The Seahorses debut on the radio at some point as it was tailor-made for such a medium. It obviously registered enough with me to make it part of the bargain bundle, albeit I never had really taken to The Stone Roses. Everyone of a certain age was telling me that John Squire was the guitarist of his generation, and that his talents and musicianship would very much be at the forefront of his new band. What did I have to lose?

mp3: The Seahorses – Love Is The Law

As it turns out, I lost £1.67, the equivalent of one-third of a fiver.

I maybe played this three times all told. I realised on its first play that I hadn’t actually listened to it properly on the radio. The tune was AOR muck and the lyric was variety-hall of the George Formby era with its mentions of Strap-On Sally chasing boys down the alley…..

Having played the other two singles,I returned to The Seahorses, just in case I had maybe over-reacted. It was then immediately put onto the CD shelves, quickly forgotten.

The third would have been just a few weeks ago, as I pondered whether if it should perhaps be reassessed.

Nope. It is the very definition of landfill indie.

I may as well offer up the two other songs on the CD single.

mp3: The Seahorses – Dreamer
mp3: The Seahorses – Sale Of The Century

And to think, there were many music critics who were convinced this band was the future. No wonder indie-guitar music soon died so spectacularly on its arse soon after.

Feel free to differ. Or just move along quietly, and we can pretend this post never appeared on the blog.

JC

B-Movie

BONUS POST : THE PUBLIC GETS WHAT THE PUBLIC WANTS

R-116619-1540220233-1791

Many of you were really taken by Dirk‘s latest offering. Given I’ve a copy of the later 12″, released in the UK on Some Bizarre, it really makes sense to offer it as bonus posting today, particularly for those who are less enamoured by the hour-long mixes.

mp3: B-Movie – Nowhere Girl (12″)

Here’s your b-side for good measure

mp3 : B- Movie – Scare Some Life Into Me

Always happy to be of service.

JC

Various

ON A NOSTALGIA TRIP

woot_nostalgia-trip_1548137757.large

Maybe not everything is better……you can make your own mind up.

All tunes included in this month’s mix comes from a bygone era.

mp3: Various – On A Nostalgia Trip

New Order – Thieves Like Us (instrumental version)
Justified Ancients of Mu Mu – Burn The Bastards
Orange Juice – I Can’t Help Myself (7″ version)
Everything But The Girl – Each and Every One
Elastica – Waking Up
Echo and The Bunnymen – All That Jazz
Pop Will Eat Itself – Touched By The Hand of Cicciolina
Paul Quinn & The Independent Group – Stupid Thing
The Chesterfields – Ask Johnny Dee
Pixies – Wave of Mutilation
Echobelly – Bellyache
The Fall – The Man Whose Head Expanded
James Kirk – Felicity
The Popguns – Waiting For The Winter
The Cramps – Can Your Pussy Do The Dog?

I reckon it’s worth an hour of your time.

JC

B-Movie

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #008

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

008 – B-MOVIE – ‚Nowhere Girl’ (Decca Records, ’82)

dirk8

now, today I’m in a bit of a dilemma. Why? Because in my humble opinion, I am confident that the 7” version of today’s feature is inferior in comparison to the 12” version. Much inferior, in fact. But this series is about the 111 best 7” singles, it’s not a musical request programme – so I have to stick to my own rules, I’m afraid!

‘Nowhere Girl’ was first issued as a 12” on Dead Good Records in 1980, only 850 copies were pressed. Do me a favor, listen to this first version on youtube (it’s easy to find (“first version”)) and let me know what you think:

(JC adds……. Click here!)

I really don’t know if I like it or not. If you compare the 1980 version to the well known 1982 12” version on Some Bizarre Records, you will understand why I’m interested in your opinion. I really cannot make my mind up! But today we have the 7” version of the 1982 re-release, one which you don’t hear all too often, I would think! And the German pressing, too … which makes no difference at all, of course!

Inferior (version) or not, this tune has always struck a chord with me. And not only with me, apparently. Old readers may already know this, but when I was much younger and much prettier than I am now, I used to DJ regularly in two clubs in town. No big discotheques, for sure: at the end of the day the first one was just a bar, but a bar with DJs. And the second one was a ‘real’ club with quite a big dance floor. The problem with the second one was that no-one ever came there, by and large, because it was quite a bit off town center.

Still I had a handful of regulars there, and I played whatever they wanted (and what I had with me in my box full of vinyl, obviously. Back then, you had to carry all the stuff, which limited your playlist down quite drastically. When I see DJs nowadays with a fag in one hand and a USB stick with 10 million songs on it in the other hand, I could kick their head in, believe me) – consequently, all of us always had a good time there. I think there wasn’t a single evening on which ‘Nowhere Girl’ was not requested to be played, honestly. The people who came there just LOVED it and really everyone danced to it, always!

The first club though, the bar, was a very different beast. If it was crowded, and it very often was, there were only a few square meters left for you to dance on, but only very drunken girls did that occasionally. Mostly when attending a hen party, probably. But once a few girls danced, others wanted to dance as well, so pretty soon I had to take good care of what to play next.

In the beginning I often failed to succeed in finding the correct segue, it must be said: it was rather hard for me to understand that the students just wanted to party and by no means were interested in my brave attempts to ‘educate’ them musically. I was torn, you see, between dumbing down my turntable offerings to a degree I could still live with more or less proudly and a landlord who summed it up one night in saying: “Oh Dirk, can’t you just FOR ONCE play something with recognition value!?”. She was probably thinking of bloody ‘Sunday, Bloody Sunday’ or some similar atrocity …

Now, to cut a long story short: B-Movie’s ‘Nowhere Girl’ (the 12” version thereof, of course) always did the job. It pleased the crowd, it pleased me, and it pleased Lexi, the landlord, who, sadly, died last year, and she was just a few years older than me, bugger!

So this is for you, Lexi:

ng1

ng2

mp3 : B-Movie – Nowhere Girl

But will it please you as well? Oh, I hope it does …

Take good care, friends,

Dirk

Garbage

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #333: GARBAGE

A Guest Posting by Ady Hodges

garbage-1998-billboard-1548

Garbage are one of those bands I have a sweet spot for, which has been compounded by the fact that I have never seen them live, despite having tickets twice! The first time I had to give the tickets up and the second time the gig was cancelled. Allied to this was the fact that in 1998, I was living in both Edinburgh & Portsmouth and they played in Edinburgh one of the weekends I was in Portsmouth & vice-versa.

I decided with this ICA that I wanted to include selections that covered their complete career to date, rather than focus on their more well known early work, to provide a more comprehensive career retrospective.

Complete Garbage – A Garbage ICA

Side 1

#1 Crush (from the Romeo & Juliet Soundtrack)

This track has never appeared on any Garbage album, despite that it is quite well known, as it has appeared in numerous TV shows & films, most notably in Baz Lurhmann‘s adaptation of Romeo & Juliet. There is a dark gothic air of menace here that is present in some of the best Garbage songs. As a song, it has an unusual structure, building through a driving beat with guitar and electronic flourishes to a pseudo chorus section, before fading back, as Shirley Manson lists the things she would do for her #1 Crush, ending on the “I will die for you” line that epitomises the stalkerish lyrics.

It’s All Over But The Crying (from Bleed Like Me)

Garbage quietly broke-up in 2003, but this proved short-lived and they issued a new album, Bleed Like Me in 2005. This beautiful, delicate ballad comes from that album and shows how well Garbage do heartbreak.

Breaking Up The Girl (from Beautiful Garbage)

Despite being know for being quite dark and gothic, Garbage have a pop heart. This is illustrated very well in this bright happy single from their 3rd album, although its layered, Spectorish backing vocals are still hiding some pretty depressing lyrics.

Special (from Version 2.0)

This smart jangly single is from the second album. It uses part of the Pretenders “Talk Of The Town “in the outro, something Chrissie Hynde was quite happy with, as she waived any royalties or writing credit. I love the lyrics, as there is quite a lot of venom in them;

“Do you have an opinion, a mind of your own?
I thought you were special I thought you should know,
but I’ve run out of patience,
I couldn’t care less”.

Even Though Our Love Is Doomed (from Strange Little Birds)

Strange Little Birds was the 2016 Garbage album and this track is proof that they could still do a fragile ballad like no one else. A lot of that is to do with Shirley Manson’s haunting voice, giving life to the tragic lyrics.

Side 2

Tell Me Where It Hurts (from Absolute Garbage)

This was the one new track on their first official greatest hits album. To my mind this is another track, that is reminiscent of the Pretenders, with Shirley Manson sounding very like Chrissie Hynde here. A string-drenched track that literally explodes into life, which makes it a great way to start side two.

Only Happy When It Rains (from Garbage)

Garbage’s first UK top 30 single and the first US hit remains one of their best loved songs and one of my personal favourites. This is because at its heart it is a great little grunge-lite song. The lyrics are tongue in cheek, parodying a lot of the grunge and alternative rock bands of the time, as is the deliberate callback to the similarly titled Jesus & Mary Chain track.

Automatic Systematic Habit (from Not Your Kind Of People)

Released seven years after Bleed Like Me, Not Your Kind Of People was a comeback album of sorts. This is the opening track, more electronic and less rocky than a lot of their work, but still recognisably Garbage. The lyrics are very defiant, “I won’t be your dirty little secret”.

Flipping The Bird (from No Gods No Masters)

A selection from the most recent Garbage album, No Gods No Masters. It’s another of their more poppy moments with some very eighties synths, that once again disguise some vicious lyrics, this time about sticking it to the people you can’t stand.

Cherry Lips (Go Baby Go!) (from Beautiful Garbage)

Another very poppy, almost bubblegum track, driven by a funky rhythm, which is quite unusual for Garbage. Once again there are some Spectorish flourishes in the backing vocals, handclaps and chimes.

You Look So Fine (from Version 2.0)

Garbage’s ballads are often quite cinematic, and this, the closing track on Version 2.0, is the best example in my mind. You can see why they were chosen to record a Bond theme song, although I’m not a particular fan of “The World Is Not Enough” myself. The way this track ends with the refrain “Let’s pretend, happy end” is a perfect way to end this ICA.

Ady

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Six)

petshopboys-1988-1200

I hope you didn’t mind that last week concentrated on just one single. The reason for asking is that I’m sticking again today to just one single. the second to be taken from Introspective.

R-155346-1287133671

Left To My Own Devices was released on 14th November 1988.

I wrote about the single at some length back in 2017. I’m going for a slightly amended cut’n’paste from that piece.

—-

Of all the Pet Shop Boys singles, my favourite is Left To My Own Devices. My first exposure to the song had come thanks to it being the opening track on the album Introspective. Just over 8 minutes in length, it was something to behold.

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – Left To My Own Devices (album version)

I was quite bemused when I read it was going to be issued as a single given it was such a strange and almost surreal lyric. OK, the word love was contained within the chorus but it wasn’t quite boy meets girl or boy meets boy or girl meets girl material what with it also wittering on about Che Guevara drinking tea and setting the sounds of classical composer Claude Debussy to a disco beat. But somehow the madcap approach worked as it reached #4 in the UK singles chart when it was released in November 1988.

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – Left To My Own Devices (single edit)

But it turns out that the album version wasn’t the one in which Neil and Chris, along with producers/engineers/orchestral arrangers Trevor Horn, Stephen Lipson and Richard Niles had really thrown the kitchen sink. Nope, for that you had to get the 12″ version which extended out to an incredible eleven and a half minutes, beginning with an unlikely drumroll before incorporating house, disco, brass, strings, operatic backing vocals and a more deliberate spoken rap from Neil. What’s not to love?

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – Left To My Own Devices (disco mix)

The b-side is a bonkers sounding bit of music, the sort of thing that seems to accompany a character in a film having a drugs-induced breakdown or panic attack. And in the typically perverse way the boys were behaving at the time, the short version (3:38) was put on the CD and 12″ releases, with the full version (5:13) available only on the flip side of the 7″:-

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – The Sound Of The Atom Splitting (extended version)

I went to see Pet Shop Boys last May at the cavernous Hydro in Glasgow. The set was a Greatest Hits type of evening, and so there were many highlights. The best, as far as I’m concerned, was Left To My Own Devices, which came in around a third of the way into the set. Full volume in front of 12,000 ecstatic fans. I was only sorry they performed the short version of the tune. I’d happily have danced away to the near 12-minute take on things.

JC

Thomas Leer

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #344: THOMAS LEER

R-75460-1557885195-2914

The one previous post on Thomas Leer dates from June 2010. It also looked at Robert Rental, with the basis being that they were two pioneers of electronica music who just happened to have been raised in the same blue-collar former shipbuilding town of Port Glasgow.

One of Thomas Leer’s earliest singles was included in the Big Gold Dream box set. Here’s the blurb from the booklet:-

“Born in Port Glasgow, Thomas Leer played in short-lived local bands before decamping to London and forming Pressure, then self-releasing his solo single Private Plane. Having hooked up with fellow emigre Robert Rental for The Bridge album, Leer moved to Cherry Red for 4 Movements. Lead track Don’t boasted a mix of electronic drum beats, disco bass and nouveau torch singing which mined the playful fourth world funk of mid-era Can.“

mp3: Thomas Leer – Don’t

4 Movements was released as a 12″ EP in July 1981. Don’t is a bit of a hidden gem…..there’s a touch of Soul Mining-era The The in the music.

JC

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds

SOME SONGS MAKE GREAT SHORT STORIES (Chapter 61)

16e05913aa0178523baacde9a019f46a

Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds got to appear on Top of The Pops back in 1995, thanks, in the main, to the Kylie Minogue effect.

Where The Wild Roses Grow got as high as #11 in the singles chart. One of the two extra tracks on the CD single is a wonderful short story set to music.

There was a thick set man with frog eyes
Who was standing at the door
And a little bald man with wing-nut ears
Was waiting in the car
Well Robert Moore passed the frog-eyed man
As he walked into the bar
And Betty Coltrane, she jumped under her table

“What’s your pleasure?” asked the barman
He had a face like boiled meat
“There’s a girl called Betty Coltrane
That I have come to see”
“But I ain’t seen that girl ’round here
For more than a week”
And Betty Coltrane, she hid beneath the table

Well, then in came a sailor with
Mermaids tattooed on his arms
Followed by the man with the wing-nut ears
Who was waitin’ in the car
Well, Robert Moore sensed trouble
He’d seen it comin’ from afar
And Betty Coltrane she gasped beneath the table

Well, the sailor said “I’m looking for my wife
They call her Betty Coltrane!”
The frog-eyed man said “That can’t be;
That’s my wife’s maiden name.”
And the man with the wing-nut ears said
“Hey, I married her back in Spain!”
And Betty Coltrane crossed herself beneath the table

Well, Robert Moore stepped up and said
“That woman is my wife.”
And he drew a silver pistol
And a wicked bowie knife;
And he shot the man with the wing-nut ears
Straight between the eyes
And Betty Coltrane, she moaned under the table

Well, the frog-eyed man jumped at Robert Moore
Who stabbed him in the chest
And as Mr Frog Eyes died he said
“Betty, you’re the girl that I loved best”
The sailor pulled a razor
Robert blasted it to bits
“And Betty, I know you’re under the table”

“Well have no fear,” said Robert Moore
“I do not want to hurt you!”
“Never a woman did I love near
Half as much as you
You are the blessed sun, girl
And you are the sacred moon.”
And Betty shot his legs out from under the table!

Well, Robert Moore went down heavy
With a crash upon the floor
And over to his thrashin’ body
Betty Coltrane she did crawl
She put the gun to the back of his head
And pulled the trigger once more
And blew his brains out all over the table

Well Betty stood up and shook her head
And waved the smoke away
Said, “I’m sorry, Mr barman
To leave your place this way.”
As she emptied out their wallets she said
“I’ll collect my severance pay.”
And then she winked and threw a dollar on the table

mp3: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds – The Ballad of Robert Moore and Betty Coltrane

Still scratching my head with the decision to leave if off the Murder Ballads album

JC

Blancmange

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #007

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

007 – BLANCMANGE – ‚I’ve Seen The Word’ (London Records, ’82)

blancmange

Hello friends,

“grievously underrated” – that’s always the first term I think of when it comes to the subject of Blancmange. ‘Yes, especially with fresh berries!’, I hear you say, ‘but this old synth-pop duo with that name sucked mightily!!’

Oh, you could not be more wrong, you ignorant little twerps: just because they used synthesizers, it doesn’t automatically make them unlistenable to! And just because they came to our attention together with quite a lot of – admittedly – crap new wave bands, it doesn’t automatically make them a crap new wave band as well! And, finally, just because they had a string of hit singles (“Blind Vision,” “Don’t Tell Me,” “Living On The Ceiling,” “Lose Your Love,” “That’s Love, That It Is” and “Waves“), it doesn’t make them lose their indie attitude.

Those of you with a certain age might remember the groundbreaking ‘Some Bizarre Album’, the label-compilation from 1981. It paved the ground, at least it did for me, for music I never heard before since then. ‘Sad Day’, Blancmange’s contribution to the compilation, was fine, but certainly not my favorite. Perhaps I was too cool to enjoy instrumentals back then. Most probably I was. In fact, it was Depeché Mode’s ‘Photographic’ that blew me away. Still, it is Blancmange that Daniel Miller out of Mute Records once described as “The Maiden Aunts of Techno” … not entirely wrong, if you ask me. And also, if you ask me, if Blancmange were the aunts, then Deutsch Amerikanische Freundschaft would have been the uncles of Techno …. but I digress.

Either way, in order to come to the music (and to an end here, I’m sure you’ll be relieved), one year after the Some Bizarre-compilation, more or less along with ‘Living On The Ceiling’ and ‘Feel Me’, this little gem came to my attention:

gk1

gk2

mp3: Blancmange – I’ve Seen The Word

One of the more tranquil choices within this series, I agree. Nothing wrong with that though, as far as I’m concerned. In my humble opinion this song is their finest hour, although by and large all they ever released has stood the test of time and is still well worth listening to … singles, albums, everything.

You know what to do now.

Take good care & enjoy,

Dirk

Twilight Sad

THE INSANE COST OF SECOND HAND VINYL? (Issue #5)

R-2620749-1293643095

Back in part 1 of this series, I mentioned that when it comes to the second-hand market it’s always been about wanting a particular record and me being happy enough to pay a price which I think is reasonable and fair.

Sometimes I look at a price and think, ‘no way’, and that a record isn’t worth it. That’s why I’ve shied away from ever getting into a bidding war for a copy of Falling and Laughing, the first single on Postcard Records, and the only one I don’t have,

As for today’s purchase, which was made in September 2020, it all boiled down to the fact that I bought all the very early singles by The Twilight Sad on vinyl, but the albums were CD purchases. The later albums were bought on vinyl, and that led me to begin to look for original copies of the band’s first two albums to complete things.

I spotted this during the COVID lockdown when holidays weren’t happening and money wasn’t being spent in the normal way. As such, I didn’t hesitate to fork out £55, plus £5 for P&P, for what the seller said, and was truthful about it, was a near mint vinyl copy of Forget The Night Ahead, the second studio album.

The vinyl version is spread across two records and is housed in a gatefold sleeve. It’s a far cry from the CD version. I’m thinking it would maybe have been £20/£25 tops when it had been released on Fat Cat Records in October 2009. If it hadn’t been the case that there was some spare money floating around, there’s no way I’d have paid £60 for it. But I made the call that it would be worth it just to be able to put the needle into the grooves of a song like this:-

mp3: The Twilight Sad – Reflection Of The Television

I’m fully acknowledging everything Fraser said in his guest posting last time out in this series, and the tremendous contributions that came in via the comments section. I know full well that a purchase such as this doesn’t help at all with the issue we all have about the cost of vinyl; if anything, it only adds to the problem in that neither the band nor the label gained financially from the transaction.

I really am uneasy about paying such high prices, but this was a rare instance when ‘the collector’ in me came to the fore. It was inevitable that, at some point, I’d look to pick up a copy of Forget The Night Ahead, and it really was about hoping to do so without, in future years, feeling I had paid too much. So, the question most relevant to this posting is whether I’d have been better to wait things out.

There are, as I type this, three copies listed on Discogs.

One can be shipped from America for $99.89 plus $28.50 shipping, (approx £106 at the current exchange rate) with all the customs nightmares such purchases entail these days.

Another can be sent over from Italy for 110 euros plus 16.90 euros shipping (approx £112 at the current exchange rate)

The third is via a UK seller, not linked to a shop, who is asking for £100 plus £6 for P&P.

In other words, if I was on the market today, I’d be expected to pay almost double what I did just two-and-a-half years ago, which just seems ridiculous.The average selling price or the album on Discogs over the past 18 months or so has been £50-£60, although not all these have been rated as mint copies. The highest price achieved by a UK seller has been £75 in November 2021. A copy, where the sleeve was described as having a split to outer sleeve at top, with a small corner dink, went for £50 in late December 2022.

I’m therefore feeling OK about what I paid. I’ll finish up with the observation that as I now have just about everything I’ve really been looking for via the second-hand market (I picked up a second-hand copy of the Twilight Sad’s debut album in a shop), I can’t see me paying that much for any such record ever again.

I won’t ever stop browsing, mind you.

JC

Joy Formidable

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #332: THE JOY FORMIDABLE

A Guest Posting by Chat DGP

David Glickman writes………………………………

I’d been wanting to write an ICA on The Joy Formidable since I saw them play live last fall. While I did pick out the ten songs I wanted to showcase, I haven’t been able to find the time to put pen to paper (or perhaps, pixels to screen). Rather than let another project die on the vine, I decided to try leveraging the newest and scariest writing tool available to the public. What follows is ChatGPT’s response to the prompt:

“Write an article about the ten best songs by The Joy Formidable in the style of an imaginary compilation album from The (new) Vinyl Villain blog”

It’s not what I would have written, of course, and it lacks the engaging storytelling of a typical ICA from JC, SWC and others. That being said, it took only seconds to create and includes about half of the songs that would have been in my version. For the record, I would have found room for “Austere”, “The Leopard and the Lung”, “Liana”, “Absence” and “Out of the Blue” in place of “This Ladder Is Ours”, “Cholla”, “Little Blimp”, “Passerby” and “The Last Thing On My Mind”.

How soon before blog writing is no longer a human endeavor? (Discuss)

-David Glickman

A GUEST POSTING by ChatGPT

Welcome to The Vinyl Villain, where we celebrate the timeless art of vinyl records. In this edition, we’re excited to present “The Joy Formidable: 10 Best Songs” – an imaginary compilation album that highlights the best of this Welsh rock band’s impressive catalog. With their unique blend of dreamy soundscapes, powerful vocals, and heavy rock riffs, The Joy Formidable has captured the hearts of fans around the world. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the ten best songs by The Joy Formidable.

1. “Whirring”

We kick off our compilation with “Whirring,” the lead single from the band’s 2011 debut album, “The Big Roar.” With its explosive guitar riffs, driving drums, and soaring vocals, “Whirring” perfectly captures the band’s signature sound. This anthemic track builds to an epic climax that showcases the band’s talent for creating dynamic, high-energy rock songs.

2. “This Ladder Is Ours”

Next up is “This Ladder Is Ours,” a standout track from the band’s 2013 album, “Wolf’s Law.” This track features a powerful bassline, propulsive drumming, and ethereal, dreamy melodies that blend seamlessly with the band’s hard-hitting rock sound. The chorus is a soaring, anthemic masterpiece that will leave you feeling inspired and uplifted.

3. “The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade”

From their debut album, “The Big Roar,” comes “The Greatest Light Is The Greatest Shade.” This track is a perfect showcase of the band’s ability to create intricate, multi-layered soundscapes. With haunting vocals and intricate guitar work, this track is a standout from the band’s early years.

4. “Cholla”

“Cholla” is a high-energy rock anthem taken from their 2013 album, “Wolf’s Law.” With its driving drums and heavy guitar riffs, this track perfectly showcases the band’s ability to create infectious, catchy hooks. The chorus is an explosive explosion of energy that will leave you wanting more.

5. “A Heavy Abacus”

One of the band’s most popular tracks, “A Heavy Abacus,” is a standout from their debut album, “The Big Roar.” With propulsive drumming and churning guitar riffs, this track is a perfect example of The Joy Formidable’s talent for creating massive, stadium-ready rock tracks. The chorus is unforgettable and will have you singing along in no time.

6. “Little Blimp”

“Little Blimp” is another highlight from “The Big Roar.” This propulsive, high-energy track perfectly showcases the band’s unique blend of heavy rock and dreamy, atmospheric soundscapes. The song builds to a soaring chorus, making it a standout track in the band’s catalog.

7. “Passerby”

Taken from their 2016 album, “Hitch,” “Passerby” is a haunting, ethereal track that showcases the band’s softer side. With delicate, finger-picked guitar and ethereal vocals, this song is a stunning showcase of the band’s ability to create intimate, emotional ballads.

8. “Cradle”

“Cradle” is a powerful, atmospheric rock track that perfectly showcases the band’s ability to create epic, cinematic soundscapes. This track, taken from “The Big Roar,” features sweeping guitars and soaring vocals, making it a standout in the band’s catalog.

9. “Silent Treatment

“Silent Treatment,” taken from their 2013 album “Wolf’s Law,” is a moody, brooding track that showcases the band’s ability to create dark, introspective rock songs. With eerie, haunting guitar work and atmospheric soundscapes, this song is a standout in the band’s catalog.

10. “The Last Thing On My Mind”

Rounding out our compilation is “The Last Thing On My Mind,” a standout track from The Joy Formidable’s 2011 album, “The Big Roar.” This track features driving drums and explosive guitar riffs, as well as powerful vocals from lead singer Ritzy Bryan. The song’s infectious chorus is sure to get stuck in your head, with its catchy melody and soaring harmonies. “The Last Thing On My Mind” is a perfect example of the band’s ability to create high-energy rock tracks that are both musically complex and incredibly catchy. With its memorable hooks and powerful performance, this track is a perfect way to end our compilation of the ten best songs by The Joy Formidable.

Chat DGP

JC adds……………

I’m not the sort who keeps up with these things and until David’s e-mail dropped in, I’d never heard of Chat DGP. I find it quite bemusing. It’s surely not the future…….is it?

Eurythmics, Fun Boy Three, Madness, Stranglers, Tears For Fears

DON’T LOOK BACK IN ANGER (2)

Thanks again for all the feedback after the initial part of this series.

The Top 10 of the singles chart in the final week of February 1983 was a very strange mix. Michael Jackson, Bonnie Tyler, Kajagoogoo and Toto were in the top four places, but underneath all of that, you would find:-

mp3: Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This) (#5)
mp3: Tears For Fears – Change (#7)
mp3: Madness – Tomorrow’s Just Another Day (#8)
mp3: Fun Boy Three – Tunnel Of Love (#10)

For the sake of completeness, Musical Youth and The Thomson Twins made up the remainder of the Top 10. There were also a couple of very interesting singles entering the chart a bit lower down, but they’ll be part of next month’s story.

I didn’t think to look at the album charts last time round, mainly on the basis that I reckoned the month of January would be skewed by the unusual sales activity that occurs every festive period. As it turned out, I actually missed that Feline, the Stranglers seventh studio album, had been released in the second week in January and had gone into the charts at #4. The album had been preceded, in late 1992, by this single:-

mp3: The Stranglers – European Female

Nobody realised it at the time, but Feline would be the last of their albums to reach the Top 10 and that European Female would be just about their last original single to reach the Top 20. Up until now it had been continuous success for The Stranglers going back to 1977, but their commercial and critical peaks had now been scaled.

JC

Pet Shop Boys

PET SHOP BOYS SINGLES (Part Five)

8f45ea1f0c7c0ef1196a15a980344de8

And now we reach what I think is my favourite phase of the Pet Shop Boys between September 1988 and June 1989, and the three singles that were lifted from their third album Introspective, itself released in October 1988. And it’s why I’m temporarily deviating away from looking at all singles from an album in one posting.

R-1565754-1241142791

Domino Dancing was released on 12th September 1988

Perhaps already tiring of being pigeonholed as purely a synth band, Pet Shop Boys in March 1988 had decamped to Miami for some recording sessions. This was around the same time as when Heart had raced all the way to #1, and given what they were working on in the studios is perhaps the best indication as to why they had been so ambivalent to the previous 45.

They chose to work with Latino producer Lewis A. Martinée, the results of which saw far more musicians play on a PSB track than ever before. The credits on the single list two additional keyboard players, a guitarist, a four-piece brass section and a backing vocal group in the shape of The Voice Of Fashion.

More than 20 years after the event, the memories of the recording sessions still could bring real excitement to Neil:-

“All the musicians on it are Cuban. There’s tons of people playing on it. This trumpet player came in who couldn’t really speak English and he played loads of notes for the solo, and so I said, ‘Can’t he play the tune, and then halfway through play loads of notes?’ and he did that, and it was great. And he came up to me afterwards and hugged me. I hate it when the solo has none of the tune in; it’s the jazz version of a remix not having any of the song in.

We made the seven-inch version, and then Lewis Martinée expanded it to the twelve-inch version on the album. Towards the end there are lots of edits, all done by hand. You could see all the white sticky tape going past. When Lewis Martinée finished the mix we suggested to him that he did a mix without the drums and that was done in half an hour. I’ve always liked that mix.”

All of which explains why I’m going to go beyond just the 7″ version.

7″

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Domino Dancing
mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Don Juan

Despite having a latin-sounding title, the b-side is a complete contrast to Domino Dancing having been recorded in London and featuring just Neil and Chris. It’s a decent enough song but sounds rather sparse in comparison to the single.

The record-buying public didn’t really take to Domino Dancing as it only reached #7, which was seen as a bit of a let-down after two consecutive #1s.

But for me, the real majesty of the song can be found on the 12″ and CD versions, as well as on Introspective:-

mp3 : Pet Shop Boys – Domino Dancing (disco mix)

Here’s the mix without the drums that was referred to by Neil in his comments above. It becomes a totally different song:-

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Domino Dancing (alternative mix)

It was also included on the 12″ and CD versions of the single. A few years later, when Introspective was given an expanded re-release, the demo version of the song was provided.

mp3: Pet Shop Boys – Domino Dancing (demo version)

This had been recorded in Los Angeles in 1987, and the really interesting thing is the lack of lyrics for the verses, as they hadn’t been completed yet.

JC

There Will Be Fireworks

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #343: THERE WILL BE FIREWORKS

2014-02-therewillbefireworks

Much of today’s info comes from elsewhere on t’internet:-

There Will Be Fireworks (TWBF) was formed in 2008 by Glasgow schoolmates Nicholas McManus, Adam Ketterer, Gibran Farrah, and David Madden. A self-titled debut album was released in July 2009 and was followed up by the Because Because EP in December 2011, both on their own label, The Imaginary Kind.

In 2012, they signed to Comets & Cartwheels, for whom they recorded and released the album The Dark, Dark, Bright in November 2013, since which point things have been very quiet.

I’ve only one song in the collection, and it comes courtesy of its inclusion on a compilation CD Avalanche Records Alternative Christmas, which was pulled together ( think in 2009) by an Edinburgh label/record with the proceeds going to some local charities.

mp3: There Will Be Fireworks – In Excelsis Deo

I’ve now discovered that the track also appeared on the above mentioned Because Because EP.

Those who wrote about TWBF often cited Frightened Rabbit as an occasional influence, and listening to this track, I can see why.

JC

Can, Public Image Limited, Stooges

THE INSANE COST OF SECOND HAND VINYL? (Issue #4)

A GUEST POST by FRASER PETTIGREW

Phoenix-records

The Price of Vinyl

(In which the author shamelessly recycles part of his comment on JC’s original post)

Back in 1980 when I was a student with grant money in my pocket (ah, those were the days), a new release LP would cost between £3 and £4 from boutiques such as Phoenix on Edinburgh’s High Street, or the small Virgin shop on Frederick Street. I still treasure my copies of Siouxsie and the Banshees’ The Scream and Joy Division’s Closer, snapped up on release day for the same amount of money as a paperback novel or a couple of pints of beer.

Second-hand rummaging in Greyfriars Market on Forrest Road could net you some classic back catalogue for around £2 a pop. Amongst the bargain gems I unearthed there are four early Can LPs on their original United Artists labels and a 1969 US copy of The Stooges’ first. I recall that Emerson, Lake and Palmer’s Pictures at an Exhibition was competitively priced at just £1, or better still, 6 copies for a fiver. My brother took his copy in to flog, and the guy just pulled open a massive drawer full of them and rolled his eyes.

Today, once I’d managed to find ye olde recorde shoppe somewhere, I wouldn’t be able to walk out of it with a new release vinyl LP until I’d left at least £25 on the counter, or probably more. In relative terms, that’s up to twice as much as I should be paying if the price of LPs had gone up by the average amount of most other consumer goods since 1980. Depending on whose calculator you choose, you should need about £4 to £4.50 today to buy what £1 would have got you 40 years ago.

Those days are gone now, and in the past they must remain (That’s enough of The Corries – Ed), for nowadays, vinyl is a niche product whose pricing dynamics are very different from the good old days. In 1980 vinyl was effectively the only way anyone could buy music, except for cassettes, which everyone knew were shit and strictly for home-taping. Even though sales of vinyl recently exceeded CDs for the first time since 1986, the actual numbers underline how nobody really buys music in physical formats anymore, and that the economies of scale in the record manufacturing business in 1980 most certainly do not apply today. Globally, some 19 million vinyl LPs were sold in the first half of 2021, pipping the 18 million CDs sold, but in 1981 consumers bought more than 1 billion vinyl LPs as well as half a billion singles.

In strict cost and profit margin terms, that still shouldn’t account for the hyper-inflation of vinyl prices today, but the niche product effect means that customers are prepared to pay a premium for the retro cachet of the plastic disc. A large part of the niche is also driven by a collector mentality. Much new vinyl is of ‘special editions’ and colour pressings. Some store owners report that if there are both black and colour versions of the same LP, the colour versions will sell out long before the black ones. Some also blame Record Store Day for fuelling this tendency, as they witness people paying stupid money for some frankly shit music purely because of the limited nature of the release.

These pumped-up prices for new discs have an inflationary effect on second-hand vinyl. Many of the buyers are the same collector/hipster buyers of new vinyl, and at the same time the supply of good used vinyl has shrunk in proportion to the decline of physical music media in general. Edinburgh has very few used vinyl shops any more. Here in New Zealand where I live now it’s the same, and the supply of genuinely worthwhile purchases is limited to say the least. That’s not to say bargains can’t be found – not so long ago I found a factory-sealed original pressing of Simple Minds‘ Empires and Dance to replace my discarded scratched copy for a mere $20 (£10). You cannot, however, walk into a used record shop these days and find yourself wishing you had more cash.

Record fairs are a different matter, and this is where I think the best shopping can be done. Although the sellers are often wise to the value of their merchandise, they are rarely too greedy and value for money can be had. The selections on offer are also more appealing to the ‘Serious Music Enthusiast’, bypassing the sort of badly mauled pop crud that is largely banished to charity shops. At Wellington’s last record fair I scored the expanded version of Stereolab‘s Margerine Eclipse (three discs) for $30, two Style Council LPs for a combined $35, and a mint copy of Nino Rota‘s Concerto per archi (bear with me, I’m a Serious Music Enthusiast) for just $10. For the first time in years, I am in need of larger record shelving.

I foresee the day when, in my old age, I will liquidate a large part of my collection to fund new hearing aids, or at least when we have to downsize to a small unit in a retirement village that definitely doesn’t have room for a thousand LPs as well as all my books and a commode. I see that some people are currently asking over $500 for that Stooges LP, and Can’s Tago Mago in the daft envelope sleeve might net me $300. PiL’s Metal Box, which I hardly ever play because it’s such a pain to get out of that bloody film can, is good for another $200. Even at a modest estimate, I could easily generate $10,000 from my collection and still keep a sentimental hold on some of my most precious darlings, those records of my youth that I saved lunch money to buy because I just had to make them part of my life. Even though I can listen to it all on Spotify, there’s a tactile and talismanic magic to some of those 12-inch plastic discs that will never be lost to music lovers of my generation.

mp3: The Stooges – 1969
mp3: Can – Paperhouse
mp3: PiL – Albatross

Those of us old enough to have fallen in love with records before the digital era have to acknowledge our own part in creating the collectability of vinyl, but it’s still an irritation that prices have been driven skywards by beardy hipsters in pursuit of the same bogus ‘authenticity’ that they seek in vinegary ‘natural’ wines or fermenting the fuck out of everything they eat. But one day, ONE DAY, by God I’ll make the bastards pay.

Fraser

Sonic Youth

A BIT OF A CHEAT GOING ON TODAY

R-547336-1255579435

The picture above suggests that today’s music is taken from a strictly limited edition 10″ record on blue vinyl. I’d really love if it was, but instead they are from a CD single. Mind You, it’s the same four songs as can be found on the vinyl.

mp3: Sonic Youth – Sugar Kane (The Short and Sweet Version)
mp3: Sonic Youth – Is It My Body
mp3: Sonic Youth – Personality Crisis
mp3: Sonic Youth – The End Of The Ugly

Sugar Kane was released in February 1993, and was the third single to be lifted from Dirty, which had been released the previous July. The version issued as a single isn’t all that short and sweet, coming in at a few seconds under five minutes, but it’s still a full minute shorter than the album version, with most of the reduction coming from the slowed-down instrumental section in the middle of the song. It’s up there among my all-time favourites from Sonic Youth. It’s as near a pop song, with a rock edge, as they ever recorded, driven along at a frantic pace by both the twin buzzsaw guitars of Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, and the astonishing playing from the rhythm section of Kim Gordon on bass and Steve Shelley on drums. It’s damn near perfect. No. I’ll withdraw that observation. It is absolutely perfect.

The b-sides make for a good mix.

Is It My Body is a cover of one of the most popular songs ever recorded by Alice Cooper. It’s from 1971 album Love It Till Death, and was also issued as the b-side to the hit single I’m Eighteen.

Personality Crisis is another famous song from the 70s, being the opening track on the eponymous debut album by the New York Dolls, released in 1973. It was one half of a Double-A side single along with Trash, a 45 that was a flop back in the day but is arguably the Dolls best known song all these years later.

The End Of The Ugly is a Sonic Youth original instrumental number that was initially only available via this single but would, in 2003 be included on the ‘Deluxe’ edition of Dirty.

Sugar Kane reached #26 in the UK singles chart which, at the time, was the highest position of any Sonic Youth 45, although Bull In The Heather, released as the lead single from 1994’s Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star, would reach #24.

JC

PS : The fact this appears the day after a Sonic Youth ICA is purely coincidental. I’ve had this one in the pipeline for a while, and it kept shifting thanks to a combination of the Cost of Vinyl new series and a range of guest contributions.

HSP’s piece on Sonic Youth that was posted yesterday should have been up ages ago. He sent it to me ages ago, but I had forgotten to covert the email into an actual piece for the blog.

Sonic Youth

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #331: SONIC YOUTH (2)

A GUEST POSTING by HYBRID SOC. PROF

YOUTH

SONIC YOUTH: NOT FOR EVERYONE BUT THEY CAN GET YOU WHAT YOU NEED

Your Happily a Bit More Grown Up Michigan Correspondent

Hybrid Soc Prof

This is long, if you want to jump to the point where things really get started, skip the first four paragraphs…

My first experience as a radio programmer/broadcaster was as the morning classical music DJ at WSRN in/at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania. Not a lot of students wanted the classical gig, and I saw it as a way to get a foot in the door in hopes of getting the Saturday night 60s show in the future. I had a half-decent knowledge of mainstream classical classics having played the violin for many years as a kid and also that the Boston Pops was something my parents would actually let us watch – as a family – after we finally got a TV (my dad assembled/soldered every transiter, resister and wire in the Heathkit TV kit he bought, because why would you want to just buy a working one?!) when I was ten.

The selection at the station wasn’t huge, but it wasn’t small either and I skimmed through it while whole sides of LPs were sent out the airwaves from the top of Clothier Hall. One day I found Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians (1978) – which had what struck me on the basis of its weird minimalist cover (maybe half presaging the sonogram on Unknown Pleasures?) – and I took it into the back studio to see what it was like. I didn’t know shit like that existed. There was both absolutely nothing and way way way too much to it. It wasn’t orchestral but, emotionally, it drew out the same emotions. I bought a copy and it was rewarding as the most fascinating close listen I’d ever done and as the perfect white noise for studying.

I got the Saturday night 60s slot fall of my sophomore year but also took to dropping a needle on anything in the newly arrived and processed bin that looked interesting. I don’t know why, but apparently it took us a long time to get Brian Eno and David Byrne’s collaboration in My Life in the Bush of Ghosts that showed me angular, fractured, experimental world music awash with sampling, followed soon thereafter by Byrne’s impossible to genre-ize music for Twyla Tharp’s dance program, The Catherine Wheel. (It was about this time that Young Marble Giants came to campus – talk about utter excitement confusion around minimalist rock [was that rock?]) And, the next spring, Koyaanisqatsi was presented as the Fri. night movie on campus and the accelerated, decelerated, bottom-up, top-down visuals of every kind of landscape on the planet blended with ten gazillion arpeggios from Philip Glass… I was transfixed, who needed drugs, though, actually, imagine what that would have been like with a microdose or full tab?! The early 80s were nuts.

The 60s show shifted towards the thousands of cuts on Nuggets, Pebbles, Boulders, regional US, and international collections of garage/punk music and in the middle of my junior year I got the Friday night freeform show where I did what I could to model the DJs on WFMU in East Orange, NJ, who seemed to have total control over every genre and could make sets comprised of 4-6 different kinds of music cohere. I am SURE there were moments, sets, 30-minute stretches and hours that were just unlistenable but, like the guy turned into a newt in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, I got better.

I didn’t come across or discover Rhys Chatam, Glenn Branca or Z’EV’s noise music then, and when I did, I didn’t like it but it did like the band I finally discovered them through.

Sonic Youth.

Or at least after a bit of work and time spent with Evol and, almost immediately thereafter with, Sister, I liked them. I was listening to the second/first “industrial” Ministry record a lot and the Annual Village Voice Pazz and Jop Poll put Evol near the top of its list for best record of the year. It sounded like there might be overlap in their sounds, so I went back and found the original review, and then another in the NY Times (where Branca, noise, experimental classical and more got mentioned), so I bought it.

At first I was worried that this was going to be a repeat of the god-awful experience of buying Frampton Comes Alive on the basis of published praise and record sales… but it turned out to be much more akin to buying The Wonderful and Frightening World of… The Fall, because of great reviews. Everyone knows, now, what Sonic Youth are, but figuring it out in 1986 was a different thing altogether… I needed that stuff from Ministry, David Byrne, Young Marble Giants, Philip Glass and Steve Reich to help me along. The more I listened the more listenable it got, which led to more listening. The one thing that really pissed me off was that I never got to see them in NYC before I left for Santa Cruz and grad school in late summer 1987.

And so what happens, the week my seminars started at UC Santa Cruz fIREHOSE opened for Sonic Youth in a tiny little bar called OT Price’s… literally walking distance from the apartment I’d found!! I was ridiculously excited; I’d loved the Minutemen and been hit hard by D Boon’s death and had high hopes that Ed fROMOHIO would be a decent stand in, alternative, or replacement (he wasn’t.) fIREHOSE came out, played an energetic punk/post-punk set and the crowd had a good time… too nostalgic for the past I probably could have given them a better chance but, well, I didn’t. When the stage had been reset and more drinks downed, Sonic Youth came out and jumped right in.

I don’t recall the set list but they were committed. The problem was the experimental atonal, retuned sounds of New York seemed to confuse and worry the post-hippy, pop punk crowd in the bar. By the third tune the crowd was waffling, by the fourth a number had turned to conversations with friends and away from the band. By the end of the fourth the band was pissed and after five they put down their instruments and walked off. Where the hell had I moved?! The show had been really good and these surfer wankers couldn’t get it! Aaargh!!!

Now, among other things, I was completely forgetting how many spins of Evol it had taken before I could digest, appreciate and come to love it, but I was young, filled with piss and vinegar, insecure and overconfident at the same time and quite capable of being a smug shit. Put another way, after a decade in NY and NJ growing up a really intense athlete and intellectual, getting used to the Central Coast of California took some time (and it took a while for folks there to get used to me.) To their everlasting credit, the band returned after the crowd – to its credit – kept clapping and cheering for quite a while. They played 5-10 Dictators and/or Dictators-adjacent tunes, the crowd loved it and the show came to an end.

This is the second Sonic Youth ICA, the first (#68 from 2016, by jimdoes) is REALLY good. We share only the first tune – I Love You Golden Blue – because I pulled The Diamond Sea and Dirty Boots in favor of other tunes from Washing Machine (which meant no music from that disc) and Goo after checking the original. There are moments when I was putting this together from the 30 tunes I initially pulled out for consideration that it was really clear that Sonic Youth had a very specific sound that informed and filled a lot of their songs. It’s not that they’re homogenous, just similar enough to be quite notable if you listen to a lot of their almost thirty years of music all at once.

This compilation has an A side and a B side… all I’ll say beyond that is that I think I now believe that the quintessential Sonic Youth song is Trilogy, with B) Hyperstation – included here – the quintessence of their essence.

SIDE A

I Love You Golden Blue, from Sonic Nurse (2004)
Shadow of a Doubt, from EVOL (1986)
Sunday, from A Thousand Leaves (1998)
Making the Nature Scene, from Screaming Fields of Sonic Love (1995)
Disappearer, from Goo (1990)

SIDE B

Screaming Skull, from Experimental Jet Set, Trash And No Star (1994)
Sugar Kane, from Dirty (1992)
Incinerate, from Rather Ripped (2006)
Trilogy: B) Hyperstation, from Daydream Nation (1988)
Tuff Gnarl, from Sister (1987)