THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

ICA WORLD CUP 2022 : THE FINAL

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Before turning to the actual final, let’s get last week’s results sorted out.

Sadly, it became clear within a few hours that one of the semi-finals was turning out to be a mismatch, with Blondie thoroughly dismantling Orange Juice.

Blondie scored the opening 9 goals before my young brother, all the way from Florida, put Orange Juice on the board. Now, it might have been a different outcome if, say, the final track on Side A had been involved as Simply Thrilled Honey v Fade Away and Radiate would likely not have been so one-sided, and indeed might have seen Edwyn & Co actually make the final. The final scoreline reflects the fact that OJ picked up a few later votes…..

Orange Juice 12 Blondie 34

To begin with, Joy Division v The Jam was a much tighter affair but by the end of the first day of voting, the team from the north-west of England had a comfortable 17-9 lead over the team from the south-east. As the week went on, things began to swing the way of Weller & Co. By Wednesday evening, the gap had been halved with the score standing at 21-17, but with The Jam now picking up two out of every three votes that were coming in, the trend was suggesting Thursday and Friday would deliver the ultimate comeback. Indeed, at one point the gap was down to just two…..but JD did recover enough on Friday to hold on.

Joy Division 24 The Jam 21

And with that, it’s a Manchester v New York final.

It wouldn’t be any sort of World Cup without controversy, and what is being proposed for the final may appal or anger many of you. But please, hear me out.

I had always intended that the final would be decided by the closing track on the ICA, and with Blondie running away with things so early on, I looked at what Walter had chosen as B5 as part of ICA 198.

“Ring Of Fire (from Roadie Soundtrack)

Blondie made another cover version in Alan Rudolph‘s movie Roadie, with the first starring role by Meat Loaf. Never thought that even a song by Johnny Cash could fit to their sound.”

My spirits sank, somewhat. While not denying that every ICA author can do whatever they like when pulling a piece together, and there’s no doubt Walter had really wanted to do something completely out of leftfield with this one….which was fine as these things go, but it now felt as if the ICA World Cup final would have a novelty song lining up on one half of the field. A quick look at the Joy Division and The Jam entries showed it would be either Decades or Move On Up – neither entirely regarded as either band’s finest moments, but in all likelihood probably far too strong for the Blondie effort.

So…. to the controversy.

Instead of asking you to determine the final on the basis of one song versus one other song, I’m asking that you consider all the remaining songs from the ICAs that hadn’t yet featured in the competition, as a collective body of work. That means four in all from both finalists, these being the final song on Side A and tracks 3-5 on Side B

Joy Division : Isolation; Shadowplay; The Eternal; Decades

Blondie : Fade Away and Radiate; The Tide Is High; Call Me; Ring Of Fire

You are, of course, free to call the outcome as a drawn match. There’s nothing in the rules to say the trophy cannot be shared!!!!

Worth mentioning that The Jam, the winners of the ICA World Cup 2018 did make a great run to the semi-finals in 2022 despite the fact the neither of their competing ICAs contained a song that had been released as an a-side of a single. Talk about strength in depth……

The other bit of controversy is that I’m asking you to get your votes in a bit earlier than usual. The closing time is Wednesday 21 December at midnight UK time. I’ll announce the result the following morning.

Thanks again

JC

Sugartown

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #337: SUGARTOWN

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If Sugartown were to be the subject of one of those Rock Family Tree diagrams which trace how a band came to be formed, it would make for very impressive reading, especially given they only ever released two albums in 1995 and 1997.

The two people picture above are Gwen Stewart, who sang vocals, and Douglas MacIntyre who played guitar and wrote most of the songs. The other two members of the band when it first formed were Paul McGeechan on keyboards and Gordon Wilson on drums.

There is a huge connection with Love and Money, one of the ‘almost made it’ bands of the Scottish scene in the 80s and 90s, with Douglas, Paul and Gordon all being part of the group in its final few years. Paul had previously been in Friends Again, a band much loved by your humble scribe.

James Grant, the frontman of Love and Money, and previously the guitarist with Friends Again, helped to co-write a couple of Sugartown songs, while Ken and David McCluskey, from The Bluebells, got involved in playing and providing backing vocals.

Gwen had been part of Wild River Apples, a Glasgow band who were making some ripples in the early 90s who got as far as signing a deal with Chrysalis Records only to have their dreams dashed when the label was taken over by EMI, and they were dropped without ever setting foot in the recording studio. After a few years away from the music industry, but still in her early 20s, she accepted an invitation to be part of the final gigs of Love and Money as backing vocalist, following which the idea was floated that she become the lead singer in Sugartown, with Douglas telling her he had written some new songs with her voice in mind.

Sugartown became part of the roster at Marina Records in Hamburg, a label that has, and still maintains, great connections with the music scene in Scotland. The first album was Swimming In The Horsepool (1995), with it being followed up by Slow Flows The River (1997), both on CD only.

It all came to an end around the turn of the century, and while Douglas turned his attention to new projects and running the Creeping Bent label, Gwen again drifted away, pursuing a career and bringing up a family.

That was, until earlier this year. Firstly, Last Night From Glasgow, via its re-release arm, Past Night From Glasgow, and with the support of the folk at Marina Records, provided Sugartown with a vinyl release in the shape of Mount Florida, a 12-track compilation bringing together the best of the songs from the two albums. The promotional blurb for Mount Florida tells you all you need to know:-

Gwen’s vocal performance on the tracks featured on the PNFG album are sad and soulful, channelling the melancholia of Bobbie Gentry and Dusty in Memphis. The 12 songs on the album are down-tempo and resigned, as Gwen’s voice imbues a tenderness for the wee small hours.

mp3: Sugartown – There Was A Time (from Swimming In The Horsepool, 1995)
mp3: Sugartown – I Won’t Let You Go Again (from Slow Flows The River, 1997)

Mount Florida, along with a lot of other great records are available from Last Night From Glasgow. You should have a think about taking out a membership and getting yourself some great deals. Click here for info.

Oh, and Douglas MacIntyre was also a co-author of Hungry Beat, one of the best music books to have been published over the past twelve months. I’m actually intending, in 2023, to offer up with a few more book reviews for TVV, and if anyone fancies offering any sort of guest posting, they would be very welcome.

JC

Cornershop

EVERYBODY NEEDS A BOSOM FOR A PILLOW

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Another one of those…..’god almighty, where has the time gone?’ moments.

It’s been more than 25 years since Brimful of Asha was released. It was the twelfth single/EP from Cornershop in what had been am occasionally critically acclaimed if commercially-successful free career that had begun some four years earlier.

It was Jacques the Kipper who introduced me to the band thanks to him including songs of theirs on compilation tapes. I first heard Brimful of Asha when it was played on Radio 1 of an evening….most likely by Jo Whiley or Steve Lamacq on the Evening Session show. I was taken immediately by its catchy chorus over what sounded suspiciously like a Jonathan Richman tune (OK….a Velvet Underground tune!!) and went out to track it down the following day. It was available across two separate CDs, with a deal available if both were bought together. My purchase may have helped the song propel Cornershop into the lower echelons of the charts for the first ever time, as the single reached #60 at the end of August 1997.

CD1

mp3: Cornershop – Brimful of Asha (short version)
mp3: Cornershop – Easy Winners (part one)
mp3: Cornershop – Rehoused
mp3: Cornershop – Brimful of Asha (Sofa Surfers Solid State Radio Mix)

CD2

mp3: Cornershop – Brimful of Asha (album version)
mp3: Cornershop – Easy Winners (part two)
mp3: Cornershop – Counteraction
mp3: Cornershop – Brimful of Asha (Mucho Macho Bolan Boogie Mix)

For those not aware, the song is a tribute to Asha Bhosle, one of the most popular and influential singers in Hindi cinema who is reckoned to have recorded more than 12,000 songs in her career. Her task was usually to act as the playback singer for the actress who was actually lip-syncing as the cameras rolled. Two other very famous playback singers – Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi – also get name checked in the lyric.

Norman Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) must have heard the Mucho Macho Bolan Boogie Mix and had a lightbulb moment, as it led to him approaching Cornershop with the suggestion of giving the remix treatment to Brimful of Asha by speeding it up and changing it slightly to a higher key.

The remix was released six months after the original version. It entered the charts at #1. To be fair to all involved, anyone buying the CD single would have found the previously released ‘short’ version of the song as its opening track, with two versions of the remix being the second and fourth offerings:-

mp3: Cornershop – Brimful of Asha (Norman Cook Remix Single Version)

mp3: Cornershop – Brimful of Asha (Norman Cook Remix Extended Version)

Sandwiched in-between was around 110 seconds of electronic noise:-

mp3: Cornershop – U47’s

The fact that Sleep On The Left Side, the follow-up 45 to the remix, reached #23 in May 1998 means that the one-hit-wonder label cannot really be attached to Cornershop, but it’s fair to say that the vast majority of people will know nothing beyond the remix. Which is a shame, as they have made a lot of great music over the years.

JC

King Creosote

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #326: KING CREOSOTE

A GUEST POSTING by CHARITY CHIC

KC Elgol

K.C Rules OK

I find it hard to believe that in the long and eclectic list of ICAs that no-one has offered up one by the great King Creosote.

From a traditional Scottish country dance band background East Neuk of Fife resident Kenny Anderson has had a prolific career recording under the nom de plume King Creosote.

He started the now legendary Fence label in 1998 initially to release his own music burnt onto CDRs (anyone remember them?)

This led to the Fence Movement where he was joined by and released music from the likes of The Beta Band and James Yorkston.

For more information and a terrific read can I recommend Vic Galloway‘s book the brilliantly titled Songs in the Key of Fife – The Intertwining stories of The Beta Band, King Creosote, KT Tunstall,James Yorkston and the Fence Collective.

All of this was sadly before he first crossed my radar. It would be approximately 10 years later before I began to pick up his releases and looked to acquire stuff from his back catalogue. If anyone has stuff from his early Fence years, a follow up ICA would be very welcome.

After that rather lengthy preamble, let’s get to the music selections.

Side 1

Something to Believe In – from the album From Scotland with Love on Domino, 2014

KC (as I will use from now on in) was commissioned to write the music to accompany the documentary of the same name directed by Virginia Heath which was commissioned as part of the cultural festival accompanying the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games. It quickly became his best selling album to date and on a number of occasions it has been played live in its entirety. I saw it performed in a very eerie Royal Concert Hall on 12th March a couple of days before lockdown in 2020.

Sometime to Believe In is the opening track full of hope and optimism. I posted it on the day of the 2014 Scottish Referendum.

Not One Bit Ashamed – from KC Rules OK on Names/679 , 2006

I think that this may well have been the first of his records that I bought (cheaply from Fopp). Again the opening track and again another statement of intent.

A Month of Firsts – from Rocket D.I.Y on Fence 2005

The only thing I have of his on Fence, albeit it was a charity shop acquisition from Spring 2021. I can’t remember where, and have since started to keep a note of where I buy them. This one was certainly a bit of a find.

There’s None of That – from Bombshell on Names/679 , 2007

My first charity find from the great man from BRICC in Ballantrae.

The Guardian did a track by track review saying of this track

0.25 Back to sweetness now, with a lovely finger-picky guitar line. “You know when hands touch/And there’s that spark of electrical something or other?” I do! What a softie.

0.28 “Well, there’s none of that.” The devil!

Bats in the Attic – from Diamond Mine (EP), Domino 2011

Bats in the Attic was an EP with KC accompanied by electronica musician Jon Hopkins with JH’s field recordings accompanying KC’s songs inspired by the East Neuk of Fife. A Mercury Prize nomination, it was the first I bought when it came out.

Side 2

You Just Want from Astronaut Meets Appleman , Domino 2016

His first record since From Scotland with Love and as far as I am aware his most recent new release. He is certainly less prolific than he was in his early years. An album I find a bit patchy with this, the opening track, being the pick of the bunch.

Leaf Piece – from From Scotland with Love

I could have chosen anything from the album for its second contribution, as they are all of a very high standard. I went for this one primarily because in contains the lines

For now my tongue is held

And my wheesht is haud

If you know, you know

You’ve No Clue Do You – from Bombshell

“the new single – and what a chug-along monster it is, full of crunchy drums, deft puns, and some nice Cluedo banter “ The Guardian

My Favourite Girl – from KC Rules OK

The second offering from KC Rules OK narrowly pushing out Marguerita Red

A lovely song for his daughter. The Earlies provide musical accompaniment

Nothing Compares to You

The only non album track. Better than Prince‘s original, but is it better than Sinead O’Connor‘s version?

The jury is out

Charity Chic

Divine Comedy

YOU CAN’T WIN OVER EVERYONE

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The 1999 release of A Secret History….The Best Of The Divine Comedy included a couple of previously unreleased songs, one of which was this rather exquisite number:-

mp3: The Divine Comedy – Gin Soaked Boy

It’s a song in which almost every line starts off with ‘I’m the….’. In my book, it’s a ridiculously clever lyric with a lot of humour, that turns quite surreal near the very end with the reference to the actor Jeff Goldblum.

But there are some who thought it was all a bit pretentious. David Stubbs, for instance, who penned a rather vitriolic review in the NME:-

“Drat it and fish hooks,” thought Hannon as he scurried across Main Quad towards the Junior Dorm. “I’ve made an awful bish of this pop lark. A beastly rotten bish.”

His sandals crunching on the gravel, he was just a blur of clever reference points at waist height as he whizzed past the RSM’s dog, Monster. He thought of the awful ragging he’d got from the younger boys after prep when they’d heard the ‘National Express’ single. He wouldn’t pick up crumpets like that any more, that was for jolly certain.

“Glad rags on as per Matron’s recco?” he thought. “Rather! Slightly glummo fizzog on one, rather like old Eggy Duggan’s after his Mater rescinded his Railway Modeller subscription? Rather, rather! Lots of whizzo prank lyrics like, ”I’m the goodness in the bad/I’m the saneness in the mad”? Sound a bit like James?

Oh. Maybe they’d hate this single, too. He suddenly felt another terrible biffing coming on.

By the time a ‘Best Of’ album was in the pipeline, the NME had long gone past the stage of actually caring about The Divine Comedy, despite the fact the paper had championed Neil Hannon back in the days when he was an unknown. I don’t suppose the NME readership was actually the target market for the album or the single.

Gin Soaked Boy was actually something of a flop in that it only got to #38, in November 1999, but then again the purpose of its release was only to give a second stimulus to the album which had entered at #3 in the week of its release some three months earlier.

JC

Fatboy Slim

BREAKING IT ALL DOWN : GANGSTER TRIPPIN’

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It was back in June 2020 that I had a think about launching a new series, but it came to nothing, mainly as I found it to be too much hard work. The idea was to breakdown a hit song to shine a light on the various samples it contained. I started the series with Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim. I ended the series with Weapon of Choice by Fatboy Slim.

But, guess what, I’m going to resurrect it, strictly as a one-off, with a look at a different Fatboy Slim single.

Gangster Trippin’ reached #3 in the UK singles charts in October 1998.

mp3: Fatboy Slim – Gangster Trippin’

The follow-up to The Rockafeller Skank, it was released two weeks in advance of the album You’ve Come A Long Way, Baby. It was, without question, the golden age for Fatboy Slim, with the album reckoned to have shipped 5 million units worldwide while spending almost two years in the UK charts.

I’ll pick up now from wiki:-

The song contains samples from “Entropy” by DJ Shadow, “Word Play” and “The Turntablist Anthem” by the X-Ecutioners, “Beatbox Wash” by the Dust Junkys (this track contains the song’s chorus line), “Change the Mood” by Jackie Mittoo, “Sissy Walk” by Freedom Now Brothers, and “You Did It” by Ann Robinson.

The recognizable “We gotta kick that gangsta shit” sample comes from the first recorded live performance by jazz rap duo Pete Rock & CL Smooth (sampled by DJ Shadow on “Entropy”). In the radio cut, it was re-edited for censorship purposes.

In 2013, Nicky Lockett (aka MC Tunes) of the Dust Junkys won a three-year court case to recover unpaid royalties for use of his vocals in the main chorus of the song.

And here comes the breakdown.

Entropy dates from 1993. It is seventeen-plus minutes long. It was actually one side of a white-label shared single, with the reverse being Send Them by Asia Born, issued by Solesides, an underground hip label based in California. Entropy is credited in full to DJ Shadow and The Groove Diggers, and consists of seven sections, all of which merge into one another to create, according to all music, “one continuous track moving from upbeat deck-work and bin-shuddering beats through thick, downtempo head music.”

mp3: DJ Shadow and The Groove Diggers – Entropy

The sample taken by Fatboy Slim comes, initially at just after the four and a half minutes mark. But, as noted above, DJ Shadow was himself sampling Pete Rock & CL Smooth.

Given that The X-Ecutioners were also sampled on Weapon of Choice, I’ll simply repeat that they are New York-based hip hop DJs/turntablists. Both Word Play and The Turntablist Anthem appear on their debut album, X-Pressions that was released in 1997.

mp3: The X-Ecutioners – Word Play
mp3: The X-Ecutioners – The Turntablist Anthem

Beatbox Wash was actually a b-side on the Dust Junky’s 1997 single, Living In The Pocket Of A Drug Queen. I’ve long had a copy of their one and only album, Done and Dusted, picked up on a whim one day after hearing that Shawn Ryder was a fan. I think I listened to it once and then filed it away.

mp3: Dust Junkys – Beatbox Wash

Change The Mood dates from 1978. Jackie Mittoo, (born as Donat Roy Mittoo), was a Jamaican-born musician who emigrated to Canada in the mid-70s where he became a major part of the reggae scene in Toronto. In later years he would work with a number of UK reggae acts including Sugar Minott, Musical Youth and UB40. He also co-wrote, Armagideon Time, a song famously covered by The Clash as the b-side to London Calling. Jackie sadly died of cancer in 1990 at the young age of 42.

mp3: Jackie Mittoo – Change The Mood

Sissy Walk is a funky instrumental single released in 1969 by Freedom Now Brothers. If Discogs is correct, it was their one and only single.

mp3: Freedom Now Brothers – Sissy Walk

The same funky horn sound can also be heard on another 1969 single:-

mp3: Ann Robinson – You Did It

Both singles came out on the Philadelphia-based label, All Brothers. As it turns out, You Did It was released first, with its backing track then forming a later 45. One of the website devoted to Philly soul advises that Ann Robinson released just three singles in her career. I’m afraid I can’t offer up any more info.

JC

Swansea Sound

THE PERFECT CHRISTMAS GIFT

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Thanks to me being away on holiday, it has taken a wee while to get to bring this to your attention, and indeed it may not be much news to those of you who are discerning when it comes to a love of music.

This time last year, I had a short series about ideas for Christmas gifts, with one of my suggestions being Live At The Rum Puncheon, the debut album from Swansea Sound, an indie supergroup (of sorts) given that its members consist of Hue Williams, Amelia Fletcher, Ian Button and Rob Pursey.

I make no apologies for suggesting their new single will make the perfect Christmas gift in 2022.

It is called Music Lover. It is actually part of a three-track CD which comes inside a specially designed Christmas Card. The track itself isn’t very Christmassy, being two-and-half minutes of indie punk pop, but it is surely the first song written entirely in ‘tribute’ to Daniel Ek, the billionaire founder and CEO of Spotify. The promo video also includes guest appearances from some of Ek’s ridiculously rich friends, such as Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk.

The Christmassy stuff does come courtesy of the other two songs on the CD, both of which were made available on a limited edition 7″ white vinyl single last year.

Happy Christmas To Me has been described by one proper music writer/critic as ‘the Christmas song the Buzzcocks would have written’. Oh, and it also found Swansea Sound wishing all the best for the festive season to Mr Ek and his pals.

mp3: Swansea Sound – Happy Christmas To Me

The other track is a cover version of Merry Christmas Darlings, the opening song on Christmas Christmas, an album released by Cheap Trick in 2017. As you might expect, it’s not a straightforward cover, with part of the song being given over to the members of Swansea Sound playing the roles of the four billionaires as they jovially and festively exchange corporate mission statements with each other.

The Music Lover EP was actually released on 1 December, in the CD/Christmas Card format, on Bandcamp only. It costs £6. The card can be signed by the band or left blank, depending on your preferences. Being a fanboy, I’ve gone for the signed version! Click here to join in with the fun.

JC

Various

ICA WORLD CUP 2022 : THE SEMI-FINALS

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In football talk, I’m over the moon that so many of you are voting with each passing week. The 2022 ICA World Cup has been a bigger success than I ever imagined, to the extent that an idea came to me on holiday for a spin-off tournament for 2023, the details of which I’ll outline in early January. It’ll hopefully continue to make Sundays a bit of competitive fun.

The quarter-finals, on paper, looked intriguing, but ultimately, three of the four ties had been settled by Tuesday evening which, because of being on holiday and then either travelling or jet-lagged, was the first time I’d had a look at how things were progressing. 41 votes had come in by Tuesday, and by Friday night, nine more votes had come in. No matches attracted a full house, and the final outcomes in those three matches turned out to be:-

Television 5 Joy Division 43

John McGeoch 15 The Jam 28

The Go-Betweens 19 Orange Juice 25

The final match was a thriller. It had to go to three recounts. At the end of the first day of voting, Blondie had 17-10 advantage over Human League. Monday was a good day for the Sheffield synthpop idols with the lead narrowing to four, with the score standing at 20-16.

Just eight votes arrived between Tuesday and Thursday, of which one wasn’t interested in this particular tie. The New York new wavers were getting anxious as the score stood at 22-21 as we went into the final day.

The Human League then pulled level for the first time in the tie when JG cast a vote at 2.05am. Aldo and DAM restored the 2 point lead for Blondie by 6.36pm. Just under 30 minutes later, amd made it 24-23.

The last word most weeks has gone to hamirthehermit as he usually comes out of his hiding place quite late on a Friday. This week it was 10.17pm. And yes, this was the final vote to be counted.

Human League 23 Blondie 25

Every bit as nail-biting as the Argentina v Netherlands match in the FIFA World Cup.

The interesting thing about the four semi-finalists is that two of them were huge commercially back in their time, while the other two were part of the indie scenes in their home cities who enjoyed only fleeting chart success but would later be accorded all sorts of critical acclaim. It’s also fair to say that all four semi-finalists have featured regularly over the years on TVV, and the posts have usually been well received.

It was prior to the start of the tournament that I decided which song from the ICAs would represent the singer/band at any particular stage. For the semi-final, it was always going to be Track 4 on the A Side. Have fun choosing between these……

Joy Division (ICA 160) v The Jam (ICA 152)

mp3 : Joy Division – Dead Souls v mp3: The Jam – Private Hell

Orange Juice (ICA 219) v Blondie (ICA 198)

mp3: Orange Juice – L.O.V.E. Love v mp3: Blondie – (I’m Always Touched By Your) Presence Dear

Voting closes at midnight (UK time) next Friday, which is the 16th of December.

JC

Suede Crocodiles

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #336: SUEDE CROCODILES

sued

I’m going wiki for the most part today:-

The Suede Crocodiles were a Scottish rock band from Glasgow, active from 1983 until 1985. Fronted by singer, songwriter and guitarist Kevin McDermott, the group are best known for their single Stop The Rain. The band was formed in 1982, under their original name, Popgun, with McDermott (vocals, guitar), Davie McCormick (drums), and Ross Drummond (bass/vocals). They were later joined by Roddy Johnson (vocals/guitar).

Stop The Rain, written by McDermott, was released on the No Strings record label and made Single of the Week in both NME and Melody Maker. The band joined Nick Heyward on a UK wide tour, including two sell-out gigs at the Dominion Theatre in London.

Alan Cruickshank later replaced Davie McCormick on drums, but the band split up before releasing their second single, Paint Yourself a Rainbow.

Johnson and Drummond went on to form The Forth Room, and Kevin McDermott went solo.

It actually turned out that, back in the day, the band had made a number of recordings for potential release by No Strings and these eventually were brought together, along with a few live renditions that had been captured, and issued as a vinyl-only 13-track compilation on Accident Records in 2001, with a later CD version being released in Japan in 2010.

Earlier this year, Stop The Rain was given the re-issue treatment by Optic Nerve Recordings, with enough copies shifting in the week of release to see it reach #39 in the Official Vinyl Singles Chart Top 40. Click here for proof!!!!

mp3: The Suede Crocodiles – Stop The Rain
mp3: The Suede Crocodiles – Pleasant Dreamer

That’s both sides of the single.

JC

Bottle Rockets

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #325: THE BOTTLE ROCKETS

A GUEST POSTING by HSP

bottlerockets

The Bottle Rockets – A Slice of Sliced-up and Ground Down Americana

Your “Even When I Studied Agriculture, I Wasn’t a Rural Sociologist”

Hybrid Soc Prof

There’s a very old joke among some portions of the American population about a young man – presumably a gap-toothed rural rube – who says: “Aah lahk BOTH kinds of music, country and western.” I have no idea if my dad really had much of a relationship at all with country or western swing growing up in central Pennsylvania or, if he did. He played a violin a bit when he was quite young, but I’m sure that was oriented to classical rather than fiddlin’. I’d be stunned, given my mom’s more patrician upbringing if my mom had any connection to either at all… for that matter I can’t imagine my mom listening to rock n roll in the 50s, her younger siblings surely but… my mom, yeah, probably not..

I do know that there wasn’t any country or rock in our house until I got a little transistor radio at eight or nine, and even then – as far as I knew, there was no country music on the radio in greater New York City. We had folk records and both classical LPs and reel to reel tapes, but that was about it. Even when I stayed with my hippy aunt in Havertown, PA, for a couple weeks when I was 11, all I remember is Carol King’s Tapestry though there’s a good likelihood that a Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young record, and probably Joni Mitchell’s Court and Spark, or something, on the shelves. I’d imagine the first quasi-pop/folk/half-rock album in the house was Simon & Garfunkel’s Bridge Over Troubled Water, but I don’t know. What I do know is that rock was introduced in the form of the (US only?) red and blue double albums of the Beatles’ Greatest Hits… just as/after they broke up.

I remember The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield, from the transistor radio, but of the genres of pop music in the late 60s, WABC in NYC played straight up country – even Johnny Cash – less than everything else. The first record I bought because I wanted to, other than Frampton Comes Alive! fiasco, was Neil Young’s After the Gold Rush… but that’s way more folk and folk rock than country. And, in a world of Album Oriented Rock, giant ass arena shows, punk, disco, and reggae nothing, and I mean NOTHING, was less cool that 1970s country. There was southern rock which had a blues-southern soul-country thing going on, but Duane Allman and half of Lynyrd Skynyrd died and we were left with “Green Grass and High Tides,” by The Outlaws, and Molly Hatchet, shudder. In the early 80s, when John Travolta starred in Urban Cowboy and the Gatlin Brothers showed up with their Member’s Only jackets, there was no way country was getting a listen – at least not from me. And, of course, The Vandals had released “Urban Struggle” and ripped every poser into country in half.

Forewarned is forearmed, this ICA is a certain version of Americana that not all folks are going to like – and that’s fine with me, I more than get it.

The Uncle Tupelo ICA (#211) made it clear that I learned there was more to country than I knew on the basis of Green on Red, The Long Ryders, Dwight Yoakum, and Steve Earle… but I probably left out The Bottle Rockets. Where Uncle Tupelo looked back to the intersection of folk and country in their punked- and rocked-up version, their neighbors just south on the Mississippi River, The Bottle Rockets, seemed to have the elements of country swimming in the roots of rock n roll in their bones. Uncle Tupelo and the Bottle Rockets were core members of the small St Louis music scene in the mid-to-late-80s and played on the same bills and in various permutations and combinations. Not that I was there.

And they hated Reaganism (and New Wave) with a left populist passion. All of their best songs are about how fucked up the lives of blue collar working and poor people are. The songs I loved when I first heard the band all illustrate the conditions – and presage the deep resentment – that produced the blue and pink collar working class’s receptivity to reactionary far right demagoguery in the 90s and 00s. It didn’t have to go this way but, to my mind, the center, center-left and liberal-left effectively abandoned union, working, farm, rural and poor people once the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party took it over.

It’s simple music with lyrics that demand little interpretation but awash with images. done. Even though I spent most of the 60s in St Louis, and live in Michigan, I am culturally coastal so the depth of the twang and drawl here took some getting used to. And reinforcing and not-terribly-off-base stereotype, If you want to understand sentiments in the southcentral regions of the rural Midwest, this band’s not a bad place to start.

I’ve done two things I rarely do in these ICAs; I’ve placed two songs from the same album back to back – I had to accept that they’re simply too perfect together – and ended with a song about which I feel some level of ambivalence… The Bottle Rockets, even when they write about lost jobs, trucks, women leaving them and their dogs, usually transcend the genre and I don’t know if this one about a dog transcends anything… but it’s how we feel about our dog so there it is.

Cross on the Highway (from Blue Sky, 2003)… Does this happen elsewhere? People placing crosses and leaving little shrines – sometimes very elaborate shrines – where loved ones died in car crashes/accidents?

Another Brand New Year (from Brand New Year, 1999)… I don’t like New Year’s Eve and haven’t had a vision of the future that’s been attractive enough in long enough to look forward with joyous anticipation to new ones for quite some time. There’s joy in my life, just the wider context, ick.

Got What I Wanted (from Bottle Rockets, 1993)… masculinity makes men stupid, so does covetousness

Welfare Music (from The Brooklyn Side, 1994)… way too much grinding poverty in the US

1000 Dollar Car (from The Brooklyn Side, 1994)… when I first heard this, I was driving exactly what they describe, a $2000 1000 dollar car, given the cost of the work necessary to get/keep that beater running.

Indianapolis (from 24 Hours a Day, 1997)… look, just don’t break down in a city designed for cars not people, especially if you hardly know anyone there

Truck Drivin’ Man (Give it All I Can) (From the Rig Rock Deluxe collection, 1996) – a classic, and great cover version

Hard Times (from Lean Forward, 2009) – the sort of country song country singers neither making nor aspiring to making tens of millions of dollars write

Perfect Far Away (from 24 Hours a Day, 1997)… it’s kinda like sex, only really different, a lot of folks have fantasies they don’t ever want to actually do, sometimes the perfect image of someone only works if you never meet ‘em.

Dog (from South Broadway Athletic Club, 2015)… he loves his dog, and we love ours.

HSP

Adam Stafford

POP’S LOWLY STATUS

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Regular readers will know that I think Adam Stafford is a bona-fide genius.

My first exposure to his work was when he was part of Y’All Is Fantasy Island, an indie band I first came across around 2007 when playing with the likes of The Twilight Sad and Frightened Rabbit. I really had high hopes for the band, but they broke up in 2011 without ever gaining much in the way of commercial success.

But it’s been Adam’s work as a solo artist that has continually got me excited. As I said in one of the many previous posts I’ve written about him, the first few times I saw him live in the solo setting left me completely in awe of what he was doing, as the sounds coming from the stage were equally bewildering and bewitching. It was all down to his highly clever and imaginative vocal and instrumental looping. It was, and has remained ever since, an extraordinary experience.

I’m very proud of the fact that I’ve become good friends with Adam over the years. I don’t just admire him as a musician or creative talent, but he’s incredibly down-to-earth and a wonderful person to sit down with in the pub and talk about all sorts of things. So, when he mentioned he was gearing up to issue a ‘best of’ compilation, I of course said I’d put something up on the blog.

Adam has called the collection Pop’s Lowly Status, Here’s how it is described on his Bandcamp page:-

Over the ten or so years Adam Stafford has been releasing solo recordings, it is hard to establish an entry point due to the often overwhelming amount of prolific output from the native of Falkirk, Central Scotland. Certainly, a lot of those albums, EPs and collections of Film Soundtrack works (not to mention previous group Y’all is Fantasy Island) have leaned towards the more experimental, minimalist, lo-fi, instrumental and electronic side of the musical spectrum.

But what about Adam Stafford as a Pop artist (in the loosest of terms)? A songwriter of impeccable craft and style able to conjure melody, hooks and harmony out of the mystical melch hat?

Here is a kind of `Best Of’ of that side of Stafford, an Introduction for the uninitiated – a Primer to discover one of Scotland’s best and underrated song craftsman and a chance to unearth some of the finest songs you’ve never heard.

From the explosive acoustic Surf Pop of `Fire & Theft’, to the beautiful, lilting lament of `Ghostly Arms’, the a Capella Alt Soul-Pop of `Shot-down You Summer Wannabes’ to the aching, thrumming ballad `Please’, which imagines a band like Low covering Roy Orbison – the sheer amount of incredible earworms are collected here for the first time, ripe for new discovery.

The thing is, I’ve long planned an Adam Stafford ICA….indeed I had an idea in my head that I’d approach him to see if he fancied coming up with one as a guest posting or perhaps one we could write together. But this 16-song collection more than does the trick. Here’s its opening track, from the 2011 album Build A Harbour Immediately

mp3: Adam Stafford – Fire & Theft

The next track on the compilation, Cold Seas, was originally released on the 2013 album Imaginary Walls Collapse, a record which would be long-listed or the Scottish Album of The Year award (and should have won it in my humble opinion). Here’s a live session version:-

That album was his first of four releases on Song, By Toad Records, the much-loved and much-missed Edinburgh-based label owned and run by Matthew Young (another genius to whom the Scottish music scene owes a huge debt). As part of the promo efforts for the 2016 album Taser Revelations, the lead-off single was afforded a quirky and enjoyable video:-

Phantom Billions just happens to be the third track on Pop’s Lowly Status, and tempting as it is to take you through the remaining thirteen songs, I’ll instead offer up the chance to listen to one of Adam’s newest recordings, a digital only single from a few weeks ago:-

mp3: Adam Stafford – Crushed Steamroller

It’s also on the new compilation, the full details of which can be found on Adam’s Bandcamp page.

Here’s the thing. Adam has made Pop’s Lowly Progress as something you name your own price for. I’ve had a chat with him, and we have come to an agreement that I can pay for five digital copies of the album to give away to readers of this blog. He actually was happy to offer them free of charge, but I insisted otherwise.

Oh, and what I didn’t tell Adam is that one of those five digital copies of the album will be accompanied by a full digital discography of his solo work, a collection which is on offer for just over £50.

So…..if you fancy having the chance of being a recipient of Pop’s Lowly Progress, courtesy of The Vinyl Villain, then just go to the comments section for this post and tell me which Scottish town is home to Adam Stafford. It’s really that simple……

THE COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED AND ALL WINNERS HAVE BEEN CONTACTED.

JC

Babybird

ONE HUNDRED AND ELEVEN SINGLES : #003

aka The Vinyl Villain incorporating Sexy Loser

003 – BABYBIRD – ‚Goodnight’ (The Echo Label, ’96)

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Hello friends,
more melody, I hear you say? Well, here you are – today’s choice probably is as catchy a tune as you will get in this series! A bit turgid and without having looked it up, I strongly assume it has even charted back then as well. This, of course, is no obstacle for a song to feature here, but it is unusual nevertheless for the balance of singles to come.

I first got aware of Babybird by a song they had on one of those ‘Volume’ – compilations, ‘Alan Ladd’. Only that they were still called Baby Bird then. The song was okay, I thought, but then they quickly disappeared from my radar. Until I first heard ‘You’re Gorgeous’, their hit single. It was played to death on the radio, even here in Germany. Which – again – normally isn’t a good sign, but I was very fond of it, I remember.

But not as fond as I was of today’s song, which is, in fact, Babybird’s first single:

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mp3: Babybird – ‘Goodnight’

It just blew me away, I must say, and it still has the very same effect these days, after all these years. It made me buy their album ‘Ugly Beautiful’, but if memory serves, I didn’t like it very much. Perhaps I should give it a second chance?

But even if the album fails to me please me again, there’s always ‘Goodnight’ ….

All the best, enjoy,

Dirk

PS: and if hamirthehermit should be reading this: just send me a short mail (dirk dot huppertz at gmx dot de) and I will reply with a rip of the other side of The Akrylykz – single. And probably also with some useful information about where to find even more stuff by the band, partly unreleased …

Martha

A FURTHER TWELVE DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (12)

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All being well, I’ll have been home for 24 hours*, but I really wanted to have this post close this short series as it focusses on one of Aldo‘s most-liked bands, and going by the fact they featured on no less than four of the Indietracks compilations, a real favourite among those who used to make the yearly trek to Derbyshire.

mp3: Martha – Sycamore (from Indietracks Compilation, 2013)
mp3: Martha – 1997, Passing In The Hallway (from Indietracks Compilation, 2015)
mp3: Martha – Westerberg Comprehensive (demo) (from Indietracks Compilation, 2017)
mp3: Martha – Heart Is Healing (from Indietracks Compilation, 2019)

Martha, whose members are J.C. Cairns (guitar/vocals), Daniel Ellis (guitar/vocals), Naomi Griffin (bass/vocals), and Nathan Stephens-Griffin (drums/vocals), some from Pity Me, a village in County Durham in the North East of England. They have, in interviews, described themselves as queer, straight edge, vegan and anarchist. They have no designated front person and all contribute vocals.

After singles on their own Discount Horse label and Odd Box Records, their debut album Courting Strong, was released on Fortuna Pop! and Salinas Records in 2014. A series of spilt singles with a series of bands on different labels preceded the release, in 2016, of the second album, Blisters In The Pit Of My Heart on Fortuna Pop! and Dirtmap Records.

There would be one further single on Fortuna Pop! in 2017 before the label closed down, and Martha chose to sign with Big Scary Monsters, an indie label based in Oxford. A series of digital singles were released in 2018 and 2019 in advance of their album, Love Keeps Kicking.

Still very much going strong, new album Please Don’t Take Me Back hit the shops at the end of October, this time on Specialist Subject Records, which is based in Bristol. A UK tour to promote the album took place while I’ve been away, sunning myself.

The four songs on the Indietracks Compilations came from a variety of sources.

Sycamore was on a limited edition 7″ single issued by Odd Box Records, with copies now fetching upwards of £40 while 1997, Passing In The Hallway can be found on the debut album.

The demo of Westerberg Comprehensive on Indietracks 2017 was previously unreleased, but its finished form had been the closing track on the band’s second album that has come out in 2016. Heart Is Healing can also be found on Love Keeps Kicking.

As it’s the final part of the series, I’m going to offer up a few more songs than has been the case over the previous eleven posts. They’ve been picked out at random, and I’m just hoping they manage to capture the fact there are four different vocalists………

mp3: Martha – 1978, Smiling Politely (from the debut EP, 2012)
mp3: Martha – Move To Durham and Never Leave (from Courting Strong, 2014)
mp3: Martha – The Historian (from spilt single, 2015)
mp3: Martha – Do Whatever (from Blisters In The Pit of My Heart, 2016)
mp3: Martha – Orange Juice (from Love Keeps Kicking, 2019)
mp3: Martha – Please Don’t Take Me Back (from Please Don’t Take Me Back, 2022)

Tomorrow will see the return of our dear friend, Dirk.

*I was talking nonsense…..I touched down at London Heathrow around the same time as today’s post was published. I got my days all mixed up. But don’t worry, Dirk will still be here tomorrow….it’s just that I’ll need to cut’n’paste his email while I’m half asleep.

JC

Hobbes Fanclub

A FURTHER TWELVE DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (11)

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mp3: The Hobbes Fanclub – Your Doubting Heart (from Indietracks Compilation, 2012)
mp3: The Hobbes Fanclub – Why Should You Tell The Truth? (from Indietracks Compilation, 2014)

I’ve cobbled this bio from a combination of all music and a piece from a PR agency when the band got round to releasing its debut album:-

Shoegaze-minded indie pop trio The Hobbes Fanclub had its beginnings in 2008 as a transcontinental collaboration between U.K. singer/songwriter Leon Carroll and Brazilian musician Fabiana Karpinski. Without ever meeting in person, the duo worked on songs via file sharing and released a few CD-Rs on smaller indie labels before parting ways in 2010.

At that time Carroll expanded the band to include drummer Adam Theakston and bassist/vocalist Louise Phelan, two musicians from his home base of Bradford, England.

They released a debut 7″ “Your Doubting Heart” on Shelflife in August 2012 and played the NYC Popfest in 2013. Debut album “Up At Lagrange” (August 2014) packs a feedback punch to the face, hitting you with the perfect amount of distortion, feedback and melody. The energy and attitude of the early 90s is heard throughout the album, full of restrained production values and classic song structures. They show off their knack for writing catchy boy/girl vocal melodies up against hazy, overdriven guitars and pounding rhythms. “Up At Lagrange” is a refreshingly diverse album that will leave you wanting to listen on repeat til the grooves wear thin or the foil inside the CD begins to fade.”

As you’ll have noticed, the debut single was included on Indietracks 2012, while the song included on Indietracks 2014 was taken from the debut album.

It appears, given there is nothing else on Discogs post-2014, that The Hobbes Fanclub spilt-up after the release of the album.

Here’s two more songs from said album:-

mp3: The Hobbes Fanclub – Stay Gold
mp3: The Hobbes Fanclub – I Knew You’d Understand

JC

Various

ICA WORLD CUP 2022 : THE QUARTER FINALS

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The FIFA World Cup has delivered some drama, shocks and last-minute goals that have changed the fortunes of the participating teams. You could argue it is merely mimicking the ICA World Cup, especially the knockout rounds.

A huge thanks to everyone who took the time to vote on the eight ties brought to you last Sunday. The comments revealed that a number of you had real difficulty choosing one song over another, and this led to a higher number of draws or non-committals than previous weeks. A couple of the ties were more or less decided quite early on, but nobody was on the end of a thrashing a la Costa Rica at the hands of Spain.

I reckon that the other six ties saw changes of leads on at least one occasions, while two matches swung back and forth to the extent they were only decided with the last couple of kicks of the ball. 46 sets of votes came in…..only one game was voted on by everyone.

Human League 29 Iggy Pop 16

Television 24 Terry Hall 17

Lloyd Cole 20 The Jam 24

Orange Juice 23 Soft Cell 16

John McGeoch 21 Cinerama 19

Joy Division 28 David Bowie 17

Siouxsie & The Banshees 20 Go-Betweens 22

Cocteau Twins 21 Blondie 25

It’s straight into the quarter-final stage. The songs will be Track 2 of Side A of the relevant ICA

Television (ICA 248) v Joy Division (ICA 160)

mp3: Television – Foxhole v mp3 : Joy Division – Transmission

John McGeoch (ICA 259) v The Jam (ICA 152)

mp3:PiL – Home (live)* v mp3: The Jam – The Place I Love

*ICA 259 is a compilation featuring John McGeoch on guitar – this track is taken from a performance on Whistle Test on BBC2 back in 1986

The Go-Betweens (ICA 200) v Orange Juice (ICA 219)

mp3: The Go-Betweens – To Reach Me v mp3: Orange Juice – Lovesick

Human League (ICA 228) v Blondie (ICA 198)

mp3: Human League – Being Boiled (Peel Session) v mp3: Blondie – Rip Her To Shreds

Voting closes at midnight (UK time) next Friday, which is the 9th of December, with the results and the semi-final draw appearing next Sunday.

NB: If Siouxsie and her motley crew had got through, it would have been Hong Kong Garden v Lovesick in the third tie above…..but if Soft Cell had beaten Orange Juice, (and Siouxsie had also won), then it would have been Hong Kong Garden v Bedsitter. We should maybe collectively be grateful that it didn’t come to that……..

JC

Understudies

A FURTHER TWELVE DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (10)

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As previously mentioned, having gone through all the Indietrack Compilations between 2012 and 2019 in the previous eight parts of this mini-series, I’m now identifying singers or bands who appear on two or more of the compilations but have yet to make an appearance on the blog.

Today is the turn of a band from London whose members are Brian Bryden (vocals, piano, organ), Bree Wright (keyboards, vocals, bass guitar, percussion, organ), Kris Schoolcraft (drums, bass guitar, keyboards, percussion), Ian Cowen (guitar, backing vocals), and Thom Allott (bass guitar, organ, guitar, keyboards, drums, percussion, mandolin, backing vocals).

A very brief description on last fm states “they make the kind of dreamy indiepop that Felt peddled in their prime, tinged with a caustic wit last seen dribbling from Luke Haines’ mouth.”

Which is a lot to live up to…….

mp3: The Understudies – Jackie (from Indietracks Compilation, 2013)
mp3: The Understudies – Is There Gonna Be Dancing? (from Indietracks Compilation, 2017)

The band’s debut album, Let Desire Guide Your Hand, came out on the excellent and reliable Berlin-based Firestation Records in 2014, and Jackie was the lead-off track, but prior to this there had been a number of singles and EPs on a variety of UK indie labels.

As far as I can tell, Is There Gonna Be Dancing? was a new and exclusive track for the Indietracks compilation, and it wasn’t included on the band’s second LP, If Destroyed True, which came out in 2019 on their own Carbide & Carbon Records.

Here’s a couple more of their songs:-

mp3: The Understudies – Erika K (single, 2013)
mp3: The Understudies – Travelling Companion (from If Destroyed True, 2019)

JC

Momus

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #324: GRAVENHURST

A GUEST POSTING by SWC from NO BADGER REQUIRED

Gravenhurst

It’s difficult to know where to begin with Gravenhurst, I mean the obvious place is the beginning, but if I do that I am in danger of missing so much out. So, thumbing my nose at convention, I am going to start at the beginning and at the end, if that makes sense.

Here’s the beginning. Gravenhurst was the musical pseudonym of Nick Talbot. As well as being a singer, a brilliant songwriter, he was a multi instrumentalist and many of the sounds heard on his first couple of records were all made by him on his own. He was also a record producer and a journalist. The word genius is banded around a lot these days, especially by me, but Nick Talbot genuinely was a genius, and a thoroughly lovely chap to boot.

You’ll note the ‘was’ in the last paragraph, because here’s the end. In early December 2014, Nick Talbot died, he was 37.* The cause of his death has never been disclosed, and that is pretty much all I am going to say about it. I knew Nick, well a bit anyway, I met him a few times, let’s go with that. Friends of mine were very close to him, and I know that his warmth, wit and talent are greatly missed.

*JC adds…..the anniversary of his death is today, hence my decision to interrupt the Indietracks season

I loved the fact that Gravenhurst had signed to Warp Records, a label normally associated with dance music that contorts and twists your mind beyond comprehension. Gravenhurst’s music was the anti-Warp if you like. All acoustic guitar, the organ, ambient soundscapes and an angelic voice that sends shivers running up to your shoulders every time you hear it. It was the perfect home for Gravenhurst, with a label that were prepared to let him do what he wanted, which was to make beautiful music that occasionally veered into the dark and mysterious forces of nature that we all try and fail to understand.

In total Gravenhurst released five studio albums and a couple of mini albums, there was also a posthumous six album box set. The first few releases are almost entirely acoustic and quite folky. At the times the music veers towards shoegaze but remains heavily influenced by the likes of Simon and Garfunkel and Nick Drake. The later releases take a twist towards psychedelic rock, and Talbot cites the work of bands like Flying Saucer Attack as a major influence on him.

This imaginary compilation doesn’t do his work justice, it is just a collection of my personal favourites of his songs.

Side One

Peacock (2012, Taken from ‘The Ghost in Daylight’)

I’ve started this compilation with an instrumental, I’ve done it deliberately so to delay the impact hearing Nick’s voice for the first time will have. ‘Peacock’ is taken from the band’s last album, by which point Gravenhurst were a three-piece and had added the word ‘Ensemble’ to their name. Regardless, ‘The Peacock’ is a scene setting kind of track, an atmospheric affair, featuring a barely strummed guitar, and the occasional wave of ambience which washes over the track, barely noticed.

Bluebeard (2004, Taken from ‘Flashlight Seasons’)

‘Bluebeard’ starts with a mournful sounding guitar and some more of those elegant sounding ambient waves, and it’s nearly thirty seconds before you get to experience Nick’s voice for the first time. If you are anything like me, that moment resulted in your arms having goosebumps. ‘Bluebeard’ is one of the more upbeat tracks on ‘Flashlight Seasons’ but it’s an incredibly simple yet wonderful song about adversity and overcoming demons.

The Collector (2007, Taken from ‘The Western Lands’ )

‘The Collector’ is taken from the bands fourth album ‘The Western Lands’ by this time Nick had turned Gravenhurst into a five piece, and they had started to explore a more psychedelic sound. The track starts off in a style more accustomed to the bands earlier work, but around halfway through the drums kick in and the guitars get plugged in before descending into a wall of feedback.

Black Holes In the Sand (2004, Taken from ‘Black Holes In the Sand Ep’)

In the gap between the release of ‘Flashlight Seasons’ and the follow-up album, ‘Fires In Distant Buildings’, there was an EP of tracks that showed a band in transition. Some guitars were plugged in, organs fire up unexpectedly and all of it physically competing with the acoustic guitars and Nick’s vocals which remain beautifully calm amidst the chaos unfolding around it. The result is a very distinct indie sound that took the band’s music to a place somewhere in the middle of ‘Race for the Prize’ era Flaming Lips and ‘Hail to the Thief’ era Radiohead. It sounded wonderful, and the next album promised great things.

The Diver (2004, Taken from ‘Flashlight Seasons’)

‘The Diver’ is probably Nick Talbot’s finest hour (although this writer tips its hat to the song that opens Side Two). It’s raw, emotional and recorded in such a way that the vocal talents of Nick can be heard to their full effect. The music behind it is stripped back, pretty much just Nick’s guitar, a simple riff that is carried throughout the song and a rumbling old bass line. It’s the vocal that make this such a stunning piece of music. A delicate, fragile sounding falsetto that whispers angelically and menacing at the same time. It’s a mesmerising piece of work.

Side Two

Nicole (2006, Taken from ‘Fires in Distant Buildings’)

‘Nicole’ is probably the band’s most recognisable track, in that it features heavily in a Shane Meadows film and grabbed the band some largely unwanted attention from the mainstream media. It’s as close to a pop song as the band ever got, but even ‘Nicole’ is some distance from being a pop song. It has an almost country edge to it, which you can hear as Nick sings away about doomed relationships. It’s one of the finest things he ever wrote.

Damage II (2004, Taken from ‘Flashlight Seasons’)

‘Damage II’ is desperately short, clocking in at just under two minutes. It’s another Nick and guitar track that looks at guilt, rejection and the pain caused by all that. The emotion can be heard in Nick’s voice which sounds close to cracking at one point. At around two minutes the song fades out and is replaced by the sounds of running water, rain, probably, which washes over the speakers for about 40 seconds.

Diane (2004, Taken from ‘Black Holes In the Sand’)

Over at my blog, I’m going to be doing a rundown of essential cover versions next year. If you are a regular reader, I’d get used to hearing about this track if I were you because it’s one of the greatest cover versions ever recorded. Never has a song about the rape and murder of a teenage girl sounded so essential. It’s really hard to believe that a line such as “We could cruise down Roberts Street all night long, but I think I’ll just rape you and kill you instead” could be sung so perfectly that it almost sounds acceptable. The way that the “Its all over now, with my knife” line is delivered as the song reaches into climax is truly remarkable.

Trust (2007, Taken from ‘The Western Lands’)

I think that Gravenhurst were an entirely different band when they expanded their sound. On ‘Trust’ which was the lead single from the band’s fourth album (one that they had to re-record due to some swearing) they sound almost unrecognisable from the songs that came a year or two earlier. The guitars are almost surf like, the vocals are more polished and almost gruff sounding (although unmistakably still Nick).

Animals (2006, Taken from ‘Fires in Distant Buildings’)

I’ll end with a track from ‘Fires In Distant Buildings’ which hints at what the future held for Nick. You get a quiet guitar, the odd cymbal crash and a subtle sounding organ and this almost devastating opening line “They descend upon the city like flies/ Spring their eggs into a dead dog’s eyes/ It’s England on a Saturday night.”.

Thanks for reading, sorry I’ve gone on a bit.

SWC

Various

NOT WHAT YOU WERE EXPECTING?

shock

Well, it is the first day of a new month.

mp3: Various – Going Stupid Once Again

Christmas, It’s Not A Biggie – Say Sue Me
Flaming Sword – Care
Jilted John – Jilted John
Alive! – Steve Mason
Inferno (Brisbane In Summer) – Robert Forster
Let Forever Be – Chemical Brothers
Cloudbursting – Kate Bush
Metal Guru – T.Rex
All On You (Perfume) – Paris Angels
Human Behaviour – Bjork
Black Tambourine – Beck
Truck – Hi Fi Sean feat. Fred Schneider
Steven Smith – The Organ
Here Comes Comus – Arab Strap
Sugar Kane – Sonic Youth
Piece of Shit – Wet Leg
Blackpool Rock – Chumawamba

It all lasts about an hour, give or take a handful of seconds.

JC

Uncategorized

A FURTHER TWELVE DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (9)

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Having gone through all the Indietrack Compilations between 2012 and 2019 in the previous eight parts of this mini-series, I’m now identifying singers or bands who appear on two or more of the compilations but have yet to make an appearance on the blog:-

mp3: Chorusgirl – No Moon (from Indietracks Compilation, 2015)
mp3: Chorusgirl – Shivers (from Indietracks Compilation, 2017)

From all music:-

“Mixing the noisy, poppy sounds of the dream pop past (Ride, Lush) with those of a more recent vintage (Vivian Girls, Dum Dum Girls), Chorusgirl take a straightforward approach to their songwriting and arrangements that allows the words and vocals of Silvi Wersing to bubble to the surface. The German native formed Chorusgirl in London and released two albums of stripped-down and emotionally tough songs in the second half of the 2010s.

Wersing spent her formative years as a musician playing bass and guitar in a string of bands, first in Germany, then in England, before striking out on her own under the name Chorusgirl in 2012. She began recording demos, solo and with producer Jan Niklas Jansen, at Bear Cave Studio in Cologne. When enough songs were ready to be aired live, she formed a group. Bassist (and fellow German) Udo Westhoff, drummer Michael Boyle, and guitarist Caroline Arvensis joined in early 2014, though Arvensis was soon replaced by Diogo Oliveira. Chorusgirl released a single in early 2015 (“No Moon”/”Dream on, Baby Blue” for the Odd Box label’s 100 Club series) and performed at Indietracks, then later in 2015 released their self-titled debut album on Fortuna POP!

The next couple of years saw the band in flux; Oliveira departed and was replaced by guitarist Faith Taylor of the group Suggested Friends, their label closed up shop, and Brexit left the German members of the band feeling uncertain. Add to that mix, Wersing’s struggles with anxiety, and making their second album was a tough go. They kept at it and worked again with Jansen in Cologne on a more thoughtful and stripped-down set of songs, two of which were contributed by Taylor. The group found a new label, Reckless Yes, and released Shimmer and Spin in late 2018.”

Both of the songs on the Indietracks compilations were taken from the self-titled debut album. Here’s a couple from the second LP:-

mp3: Chorusgirl – In Dreams
mp3: Chorusgirl – Love Is Like

JC

Advance Base

A FURTHER TWELVE DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (8)

The annual Indietracks Compilations were issued to celebrate the singers and bands performing that particular year, but they didn’t always contain new or recent songs, as this example from the 2019 compilation demonstrates:-

mp3: Advance Base – Summon Satan

Despite its title seemingly more in keeping with some sort of song by a heavy metal band, possibly from the deepest and darkest forests of Central Europe, it is in fact a song that is very typical of Advance Base, the name often used in recording and performance by Owen Ashworth, a Chicago-based musician who, as his website advises,“uses electric piano, Omnichord, samplers, effect pedals & drum machines, Ashworth builds minimalist, heavy-hearted, & nostalgia-obsessed ballads around his conversational baritone.”

He’s been making music for many years, initially as the wonderfully named Casio For The Painfully Alone as far back as 1999, while the Advance Base material dates from 2011 to the present, with Owen currently, as you read this, about to head out on a nine-date tour that will take in cities in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina over the next couple of weeks. Summon Satan can be found on the album Nephew In The Wild, which was released in 2015.

The website informs visitors that ‘the warm, electronic sound of Advance Base has been described as “lo-fi,” “depressed” & “weirdly uplifting.” ‘, which, based on the above track and those which follow below, is bang on the money. I reckon he’ll be a mesmerising watch in the live setting.

mp3: Advance Base – Summer Music (from A Shut-in’s Prayer, 2012)
mp3: Advance Base – Rabbits (from Animal Companionship, 2018)

Here’s the link to his official website.