THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN

THE EIGHT DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (7)

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The 2018 Indietracks compilation contains 40 songs, with, as far as I can tell, just two of the acts having previously featured on TVV – Life Model, and The Smittens.

Again, this is one I’ll likely return to for future postings. It’s maybe worth pointing out that, as time went on, the compilation CD was giving space to lesser-known acts, and the festival ‘headliners’ for 2018 – The Lovely Eggs on Friday, British Sea Power on Saturday and Honeyblood on Sunday – were not included.

Today’s offering comes from Worst Place, the opening act on the main stage on the Friday evening, and who, by all accounts, went down a storm, leading to a fair bit of on-line coverage over the following weeks and months.

mp3: Worst Place – Dreamer

The four-piece band formed in London in 2016, but judging from what’s on this SoundCloud page, have just six original songs to their name, which is backed up by not too much product being available on the bandcamp page.

There’s also been nothing since early 2019, which makes me think the band is no more, which is a real pity as I quite liked what they were doing. I also came across a video for another single:-

It really does feel as if a lot of young bands, the world over, lost all their momentum when COVID took its toll.

JC

Crywank

THE EIGHT DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (6)

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The 2017 Indietracks compilation contains 44 songs, with, as far as I can tell, just six of the acts having previously featured on TVV – Just Joans, Kid Canaveral, The Orchids, Perfect English Weather, The Wave Pictures, and The Wedding Present.

I’ve gone for a band whose very name I’ve long wanted to feature on TVV after seeing it on a poster in the window of the 13th Note in Glasgow, advertising that they were making an appearance at said venue, albeit I had missed them by a few days.

mp3: Crywank – I Am In Great Pain, Help Me

From bandcamp:-

Crywank are a UK based anti-folk band. They formed in Manchester. Jay is from Barnsley, Dan is from Darwen. They mostly write sad songs and have been told they are the worst named band in the country.

There’s a wiki page which adds plenty more.

The band is a duo consisting of vocalist/guitarist and founder Jay Clayton, (who is non-binary and uses they/them pronouns) and drummer Dan Watson, who joined in 2012. The group have independently released eight full length albums and have previously toured the UK, Ireland, Mainland Europe, Russia, South East Asia, South America, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico and Canada.

Crywank announced in 2019 that they were intending to break up after a world tour in the summer of 2020. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the tour was cut short before they could tour round the USA.

On May 1st 2020, Crywank released their seventh album entitled Fist Me ‘Til Your Hand Comes Out My Mouth. On August 28th 2021, despite previously announcing that Fist Me ‘Til Your Hand Comes Out My Mouth would be their final album, Crywank announced their eighth studio album Just Popping In to Say Hi would be released on September 13th of that same year.

Going back to the bandcamp page, there’s info that the eighth album is actually a solo release by Jay, who now lives in Toronto, but with the full permission of Dan who I assume is still in England. It will be the final Crywank album with it consisting of songs dealing with the break-up of the band, with Jay intending to continue writing and performing under the name of Lovewank, with the idea being to concentrate on love songs.

Here’s the link to the bandcamp page if you want to find out more.

If nothing else, the appearance of Crywank at Indietracks gives you all the proof you need to realise that the festival was far from one-dimensional.

JC

Expert Alterations

THE EIGHT DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (5)

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So….in case you missed it last week…..this short series features music from the compilation albums that were issued on an annual basis from 2012 to 2019 to commemorate the staging of the Indietracks festival, with the idea being that each post will have a tune by a singer or band never feature previously on TVV.

The 2016 compilation contains 41 songs, with, as far as I can tell, only two of the acts having previously featured – Emma Pollock, and Spook School.

Loads of choice, to the extent that I’ll likely return to this particular compilation again in the future. For now, here’s something I think many of you will like:-

mp3: Expert Alterations – Such A Stupid Fool

A fine little number which comes in at ten seconds under two minutes, during which it ticks plenty of indie-pop/twee boxes.

Expert Alterations are from Baltimore. The trio of Patrick Teal (guitar/vocals), Alan Everhart (bass) and Paul Krolian (drums) first got together in 2013, citing the c86 movement as a real inspiration. Their initial release was a self-released five-song cassette EP in 2014, which the following year was issued on vinyl by Slumberland.

At the same time, the band signed to the Brooklyn-based Kanine Records for whom the debut album, You Can’t Always Be Liked, was recorded in 2015 and released later the same year. Such A Stupid Fool, the song included on Indietracks 2016, is from the debut album.

Whether the band are still together or not, I can’t say, but there’s been no new music from them over the past seven years.

JC

Style Council

THE MONDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Part sixty-one: LONG HOT SUMMER

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It’s always the same when the calendar flips round to June…..I get all nostalgic for bygone, warm and carefree days. Blame it on the fact there’s another birthday fast approaching….gawd only knows what state I’ll be in this time next year as the 60th approaches.

This takes me back to the late summer of 1983, and in particular the first few weeks of moving into my first flat with fellow students. It was a gloriously happy time. Seems only right to offer up all four tracks from the 7″ single:-

mp3: The Style Council – Long Hot Summer
mp3: The Style Council – Party Chambers
mp3: The Style Council – The Paris Match
mp3: The Style Council – Le Depart

Then again, as you’ll hear from the fact there’s a bit more wear and tear via the pops and crackles on the 12″ take on things, it was the one on more regular rotation:-

mp3: The Style Council – Long Hot Summer (extended version)

Oh, and I can’t really let this all go without fast forwarding twelve months and the album version of one of the b-sides – a reminder of 1984 being the first time I visited the capital of France, along with the then love of my life. All the way there, and beyond to Venice, and back to Glasgow, via Interrail on a student bargain ticket:-

mp3: The Style Council – The Paris Match (album version)

Mick Talbot plays piano, Chris Bostock (of Jo Boxers) plays double bass, Ben Watt plays guitar and Tracey Thorn takes the vocal to a new level. I’m guessing Paul Weller simply sat in the studio, watching on with a huge grin on his face.

JC

Fall

THE WONDERFUL AND FRIGHTENING SERIES FOR SUNDAYS (Part 51)

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I’m going to wiki today:-

The Remainderer is an EP by the Fall, released on 9 November 2013. It features five new songs by the group and a medley of two Gene Vincent covers.

The Quietus described the title track as “full of mischief and malevolence” and the rest of the EP as “answering the call of the weird”. Pitchfork noted the longevity of the line-up as “an encouraging sign that stability has yet to ossify into stagnation with this ongoing iteration of the band, who formidably exercise their elasticity over the course of these six wildly divergent tracks”.

The Line of Best Fit commented that the EP “isn’t necessarily consistently solid, but it’s decidedly close. Fundamentally though it’s reaffirmation of their aptitude for quantity and quality”.

NME found the EP to “sound like someone’s brought Elvis back to life”.

mp3: The Fall – The Remainderer
mp3: The Fall – Amorator!
mp3: The Fall – Mister Rode

mp3: The Fall – Rememberance R
mp3: The Fall – Say Mama/Race With The Devil (live)
mp3: The Fall – Touchy Pad

Again, you’ll find it’s MES (vocals), Peter Greenway (guitar), David Spurr (bass), Keiron Melling (drums) and Eleni Poulou (keyboards) with Cherry Red Records the label. The days of line-ups constantly changing and shifts from one label to another were firmly in the rear.

Two more weeks left in the series.

JC

Sound Of Yell

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #311: SOUND OF YELL

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Cribbed from bandcamp:-

Stevie Jones is a prolific musician, composer and producer, and a key figure in the underground Glasgow music scene for more than two decades.

Imagine the universe of Sound of Yell as an artist’s studio or a theatre props store, where instead of paints and brushes and jumbled boxes there are instruments and sounds and motifs mingled together, some to melodious effect, others fusing to conjure an eerie dissonance.

Overseeing this Aladdin’s cave of sound and song is Jones, whose balance of the deliberate and the spontaneous has become a signature developed through countless collaborations – including Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat, Alasdair Roberts, Emma Pollock and Arab Strap – the groundbreaking quartet El Hombre Trajeado (alongside guitarist RM Hubbert) and stints composing music and sound design for Scotland’s leading theatre companies.

There have been two albums – Broken Spectre (2014) and Leapling (2020) – both of which were released by Chemikal Underground.

I’ve a copy of the debut album, and it’s quite unlike anything else I have in the collection. I’ve a feeling the song I’ve selected from it won’t appeal to many regulars, but who knows?

mp3: Sound Of Yell – Scuttling

It’s the first of eight tracks on Broken Spectre.

JC

Cristina Quesada, Rodney Cromwell

THE EIGHT DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (4)

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The 2015 Indietracks compilation contains 49 songs, with, as far as I can tell, seven of the acts having previously featured on TVV in one form or another – The Catenary Wires, Cinerama, Darling Buds, Euros Childs, Laetitia Sadier, Pete Astor, and The Wave Pictures

I’m going to offer up two tracks today, on the basis that the first of them is a cover version:-

mp3: Cristina Quesada – Just Like Honey

From all music:-

Hailing from Madrid but well-versed in a number of different languages, soft-spoken indie pop singer Cristina Quesada harks back to the gentle world of vintage Europop.

Taking up the guitar at age 13, she learned to play her favorite songs, working in theatre troupes and eventually joining the cast of a children’s television program in the Canary Islands. A couple of years later, she discovered the ukulele, which became her primary instrument and led to the recording of her first 7″ single for Spanish indie pop label Elefant Records in 2013. Working with a number of collaborators in and out of the Elefant stable, Quesada began recording her debut LP in 2014. A mix of originals and unusual covers sung in Spanish, English, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese, and even Japanese, You Are the One was released in early 2015.

mp3: Rodney Cromwell – Barry Was An Arms Dealer

Adapted from an official website:-

From Catford in South London, Rodney Cromwell is the solo electronic project of Adam Cresswell, founding member of indie-folktronica act Saloon and one half of acclaimed electronic two-piece Arthur & Martha.

His 2015 debut album ‘Age of Anxiety’ combined danceable rhythms with melodic bass lines, the chimes of toy instruments, and the bleeps and whistles of retro synths. It explored themes such as paranoia, despair, love, loss and depression while retaining an upbeat pop sensibility, and was featured by among others NME, Electronic Sound, Huffington Post, Louder Than War, BBC 6 Music and RNE3 in Spain for whom he recorded a live session. A follow-up EP ‘Rodney’s English Disco’ was released in 2018 that took his analogue synth sound in an often bleaker new direction.

See…..Indietracks wasn’t just twee-pop and guitars.

JC

Manhattan Love Suicides

THE EIGHT DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (3)

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The 2014 Indietracks compilation contains 56 songs, with, as far as I can tell, nine of the acts having previously featured on TVV – Allo Darlin’, The Flatmates, Hidden Camera, Just Joans, Lonely Tourist, Popguns, Spook School, TeenCanteen, and Withered Hand.

There’s been quite a few decent acts to originate or emerge out of Leeds over the years. Here’s one you night not have heard of

mp3: The Manhattan Loves Suicides – (Never Stop) Hating You

From a combination of wiki and all music:-

The Manhattan Love Suicides was a UK-based rock band from Leeds, originally active between 2006 and 2009, and then again between 2013 and 2016.

With a sound directly inspired by the likes of the Jesus and Mary Chain, the Shop Assistants, and the Primitives, a black-and-blonde fashion sense, and a knack for buzzy three-minute guitar pop tunes, they were an unapologetic throwback to the sound of the British indie scene from 20 years before their time. They even took their name from a 1985 short film by Richard Kern, the “transgressive” New York filmmaker.

Their eponymous debut album was released in 2006 in the UK as vinyl-only (although it was made available in the US in CD format through the Magic Marker record label) and a 27-track compilation, entitled Burnt Out Landscapes, followed two years later. The band reformed in 2013 with “(Never Stop) Hating You” and released a new album, More Heat! More Panic! in March 2015.

Again, this is the only song of theirs I have on the hard drive, and I’d be interested if anyone out there has any more and would consider a guest posting of some sorts, as they tick a lot of the boxes on TVV.

JC

When Nalda Became Punk

THE EIGHT DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (2)

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The 2013 Indietracks compilation contains 47 songs, with, as far as I can tell, only four of the acts having previously featured on TVV – bis, Lovely Eggs, The Wake, and The Wave Pictures.

Loads to select from, so hopefully this meets with approval.

mp3: When Nalda Became Punk – Summer, You and Me

From all music:-

Spanish indie pop group When Nalda Became Punk began in 2006 as a solo project for vocalist/guitarist Elena Sestelo.

Pairing classic C86-inspired indie pop songwriting with fuzzy guitars, synths, and drum machines, she released a demo titled “Tiny Noises Make Tiny Music” under the name Nalda before taking a break from recording until 2010. At that time, she recorded another demo (“Time to Meet Your Family”) and expanded to the full name before adding guitarist Roberto Cibeira to the lineup.

The duo recorded a single for Pebble Records (“When Nalda Became Punk”/”D.I.Y.”) in 2011 before gearing up for live shows and working on their debut album A Farewell to Youth.

Recorded with fellow countrymen Eva Guilala and Ivan Juniper, it was released in early 2013 by Shelflife Records. The band added keyboardist Antonio Llarena to the line-up and proceeded to play shows, including the 2013 Indietracks Festival.

After a respite from recording, the trio returned in 2014 with a single for Elefant, the four-song Indiepop or Whatever! After adding another member, bassist Bruno Murmura, the band recorded the Those Words Broke Our Hearts EP, which Elefant shared with the world in early 2017.

Again, this is the only song of theirs I have on the hard drive, and the above description of C86 with fuzzy guitars is bang-on.

JC

Go Sailor

THE EIGHT DAYS OF INDIETRACKS COMPILATIONS (1)

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So….for the next couple of weeks, you will either love or loath this blog as I’m locking down into a pattern. Saturdays, Sundays and Mondays will see the continuation of the various series that have been long-running, while Tuesdays to Fridays will feature music from compilation albums that were issued on an annual basis from 2012 to 2019 to commemorate the staging of the Indietracks festival.

As the official website states:-

Indietracks was a celebration of independent, creative and DIY pop music that took place at the Midland Railway – Butterley in the Derbyshire countryside from 2007 to 2019. Each year, around 50 new and established artists performed across a range of stages at the festival. Visitors were free to enjoy steam train rides, railway attractions and museums, discos, art and craft workshops, great food and a selection of real ales.

In November 2021, the Indietracks organisers made an unexpected announcement:-

We’re very sad to say that we’re bringing the Indietracks festival to a close. We’ve had over a decade of wonderful memories, and so it’s heartbreaking to let you know that 2019’s festival was our final event. We realise that the festival was very special to many people, and this isn’t a decision that we’ve taken lightly. However, despite significant effort from all concerned, the event has sadly proved unsustainable, principally due to the ongoing ramifications of the pandemic.

My dear friend Aldo was a regular at the Festival, and I had promised him that once I stopped working, I’d make an effort to come along one year. Sadly, my retiral in March 2020 coincided with the first wave of COVID….you can join the dots.

Every year a download compilation album featuring bands playing at the festival was released with all proceeds going to the Midland Railway charity. I’ve downloaded each of the volumes from 2012-2019 via bandcamp, and the idea is now to share with one track per day from a singer or band yet to feature on TVV.

The 2012 compilation contains 52 songs, with, as far as I can tell, only nine of the acts having previously featured – 14 Iced Bears, Allo’ Darlin, Ballboy, Jasmine Minks, June Brides, Just Joans, Monochrome Set, The Smittens, and Spook School.

I’m opening up with something which, to my ears, sums up what I imagined much of Indietracks to be like:-

mp3: Go Sailor – Last Year

Wiki informs us that Go Sailor was a short-lived Berkeley based twee pop band. Its members included Rose Melberg of Tiger Trap and The Softies (guitar, vocals), Paul Curran of Crimpshrine (bass) and Amy Linton of Henry’s Dress (later of The Aislers Set) (drums). They recorded three 7″ singles and a full-length CD on Lookout! Records in 1996. The trio re-grouped in 2012 to play a handful of shows, including an appearance at Indietracks.

It’s the only song of theirs I have on the hard drive, and I reckon it’s rather splendid.

JC

Go-Betweens

THE MONDAY MORNING HI-QUALITY VINYL RIP : Part sixty: THE WRONG ROAD

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The Go-Betweens are best known for indie-pop with guitars, albeit the addition of Amanda Brown on violin to the group added a new dynamic to the songs on the fourth and fifth studio albums, Tallulah (1987) and 16 Lovers Lane (1988).

Today’s hi-quality vinyl rip comes from Liberty Belle and The Black Diamond Express, the third album which dates back to 1986. It’s a song written by the late Grant McLennan and is one in which strings, in the shape of a cello, two violins and a viola are very much to the fore, especially in the middle section instrumental break, leading to a five-minute masterpiece of chamber pop:-

mp3: The Go-Betweens – The Wrong Road

The first time I saw Butcher Boy play immediately put The Wrong Road into my head, thanks to the presence of a string section among the usual mix of guitars, bass, keyboards and drums – oh and the fact John Hunt on lead vocals had such a shy yet magnetic presence on stage that he reminded me of Grant. It’s little wonder I fell under his and his band’s spell.

JC

Fall

THE WONDERFUL AND FRIGHTENING SERIES FOR SUNDAYS (Part 50)

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It was a quiet twelve months for The Fall between the release of Night of The Humerons for Record Store Day 2012 and the next again time any new product was in the shops. Indeed, it was Record Store Day 2013 when 1,500 copies of a 7″ single found their way onto various shelves and racks.

mp3: The Fall – Sir William Wray
mp3: The Fall – Jetplane
mp3: The Fall – Hittite Man

The now well-established quintet of MES (vocals), Peter Greenway (guitar), David Spurr (bass), Keiron Melling (drums) and Eleni Poulou (keyboards) were the musicians on board, and again it was Cherry Red Records on which it was released. All three songs would be included on the album Re-Mit, which came out a couple of weeks after RSD 2013.

I hadn’t heard any of these prior to pullling this post together. I was surprised to discover that they are quite diverse, which is something to behold given that The Fall had now, at this point, been making music for 35 years, but I feel that Jetplane is the only one worth repeated listens.

Having said that, a different version of Hittite Man was put out on Facebook (!!) just after the album was released, and is an improvement on the original.

mp3: The Fall – Hittite Man (alternate version)

This line-up of The Fall, it has to be said, sound quite professional and polished in many places but, to my ears, without the spark of the classic line-ups who have featured in past postings. Indeed, as you can hear best on the alternative version of Hittite Man, they are almost a bog-standard rock band. Or am I being unfair??

This series is drawing to its natural conclusion, and I’ve already decided what’s going to take its place on Sundays going forward. I hope most of you will be happy…..

JC

Sons Of The Descent

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #310: SONS OF THE DESCENT

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I’ll simply pull the band bio from the bandcamp page:-

Sons of The Descent were formed by Edinburgh duo Hugh Duggie and Ian White, ex Factory Records and Mute artists, and between them they were in the Wendys, Foil, and Lowlife. Joined by Stephen ‘Bendy Toy’ Evans. It is all about the electronica, and the guitars, and the songs. All songs are written, performed, and produced by SOTD, for their own Brawsome Productions

They are a much under-appreciated trio, whose debut album was featured a couple of times on the blog back in 2017, especially via this guest posting by Jacques the Kipper.

Since then, there’s been a few digital releases, all of which can be tried and tested right here before you plunge in and spend some currency.

mp3: Sons of The Descent – Golden Misfits

One from the debut album, a record which draws upon many influences. JtK cited Stone Roses for this track in his review……

JC

A Certain Ratio

FAC 5 : ALL NIGHT PARTY by A CERTAIN RATIO

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The short series looking at the contents of the Use Hearing Protection box set. FAC5 proved to be the first ‘proper’ or traditional Factory 45 in that it had one track on the a-side and one track on the b-side, both by the same act:-

mp3: A Certain Ratio – All Night Party
mp3: A Certain Ratio – The Thin Boys

This one has featured previously on the blog as part of the debut singles series, and I’ll simply cut’n’paste from November 2018:-

“The debut single from A Certain Ratio sounds unlike anything else they would ever release during their recording career for the simple reason that it doesn’t feature Donald Johnson on percussion or drums. Indeed, this September 1979 release is one which will be of huge appeal to the raincoat-wearing brigade, particularly those whose tastes encompassed Joy Division or Bauhaus, featuring that brooding guitar sound which producer Martin Hannett was beginning to refine in his work with the former and a vocal that was goth-lite.

Echorich, very bravely, had this open up his ACR ICA back in February 2017 and I don’t think there’s any way of topping (pun intended) his description of it:-

“All Night Party has a soulless urgency that just builds and builds until it stops. It is certainly night music, but the only party it would soundtrack would likely occur in a mausoleum.”

FAC5 confounded the critics, albeit Jon Savage in a review in Melody Maker said the band displayed ‘rudimentary skills with more panache and imagination than most since the Sex Pistols’

Neither track was helped much by the cheap pressing afforded to the recording, but such has become the modern-day demand for vinyl of this vintage that you can expect to pay £50 for a copy of a 7″ single that’s in decent nick as only 5,000 were pressed….there’s a lot of Factory obsessives out there you know.

The addition of the new drummer and percussionist, allied to the other members own tastes, took them down a road in which funk, dub and disco played their parts in making them quite unlike any other on the Manchester label. It’s hard to imagine they would have lasted that long if they hadn’t shifted direction, but there’s just something I find alluring and very appealing about the debut.”

The difference in this posting and that from November 2018 is that the mp3s come from the vinyl within the box set.

JC

Breeders

10″ OF (NOT GREEN) VINYL FROM 1994

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1993 was the year when The Breeders made a commercial breakthrough in the UK, thanks to the critically acclaimed album Last Splash going Top 5, with two of its tracks – Cannonball and Divine Hammer – being minor hits in the singles charts.

Nobody knew that it would take until 2002 for a follow-up album to be made available, with the band more or less becoming inactive for the most part after taking part in the two-month-long Lollapalooza Tour in 1994, where they shared the main stage with Smashing Pumpkins, Beastie Boys, George Clinton & the P-Funk All Stars, A Tribe Called Quest, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, L7, and Green Day.

It was while that tour was underway that their labels – 4AD in Europe and Elektra in the USA – quietly issued a four-track EP, with the 4AD release being on 10″ ~~green~~ standard black vinyl:-

mp3: The Breeders – Head To Toe
mp3: The Breeders – Shocker In Gloomtown
mp3: The Breeders – Freed Pig
mp3: The Breeders – Saints

I didn’t pick this up at the time, only finding it many years later in a second-hand shop. I was quite disappointed when I played it, thinking the lead track was a step-back from the polished efforts that I had enjoyed on Last Splash…it sort of sounds as if it’s a hurried, unfinished track that had been issued just to ensure there was product on sale as they made their way across the States.

Shocker In Gloomtown lasts less time than it takes to type this descriptive sentence – it’s a hard-rocking noisy cover of a song written and recorded by Guided By Voices.

Freed Pig is another cover – lending weight to my theory that the EP was a rushed release – this time of a Sebadoh number, but there is a bit of a tune there in comparison to the two previous tracks.

Rounding things off is an alternative version of Saints, one of the most popular and enduring songs from Last Splash. It’s okay, but not a patch on the original.

The EP barely cracked the Top 75 here in the UK and made no impact in the States.

JC

Lunchtime addendum

This was posted first thing as saying it was on green vinyl.

It isn’t….and thanks to the folk who came on this morning questioning things. I’ve just been into the big cupboard full of vinyl where the singles are stored to check.

Sorry for being an arse!

Various

THAT SUMMER FEELING

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Sorry if you’ve popped by thinking you’ll find Jonathan Richman hanging round the front porch……

mp3: Various – That Summer Feeling

Town Called Malice – The Jam
Graffiti – Maximo Park
So When You Gonna… – Dream Wife
The Overload – Yard Act
Senses Working Overtime – XTC
Pictures Of You – The Cure
Road Rage – Catatonia
Atomic – Blondie
I Love Myself and I Always Have – Robert Forster
Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair – Arctic Monkeys
Portions For Foxes – Rilo Kiley
Wrecking Bar (ra ra ra) – The Vaccines
With Handclaps – Y’all Is Fantasy Island
Slow Train To Dawn – The The
He’s Frank (Slight Return) – The Monochrome Set
Being In Love – Wet Leg
Bankrobber – The Clash

Five seconds beyond sixty minutes for the second successive month. Don’t be fooled by the title….it’s simply down to it being June’s offering.

JC

Cats On Fire

AN IMAGINARY COMPILATION ALBUM : #314: CATS ON FIRE

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I’m going to let someone else tell you why Cats on Fire were such a wonderful band. This appeared in the Guardian newspaper back on 4 May 2012, and was penned by Neil Kulkarni.

“A wet Wednesday night in London, and a handbag is repeatedly hitting us in the face. We don’t care, because we’re dancing – as is the handbagger – to the best pop music being made on the planet right now. The crew responsible for ramming out the steaming Bull and Gate is Finland’s fantastic Cats on Fire, fondly loved in Europe yet virtually unknown in the UK, where they have difficulty even getting their records released.

That’s odd, considering the three albums they’ve given us since 2007 do nothing less than reinject possibilities, politics, wit, erudition and joy into guitar pop. We’re not just here, nose-to-nipple, because we love Cats on Fire, or because they also happen to be the best-looking band on Earth. We’re here because 2007’s The Province Complains contained I Am the White Mantled King, one of the greatest songs of this millennium; because 2009’s Our Temperance Movement was the most pristinely perfect pop album seemingly no one but us ever heard; because this year’s All Blackshirts to Me is, impossibly, even better. Cats on Fire are sleeping on someone’s floor tonight. By rights, it should be the Queen’s; by rights, as everyone here knows, they should be stars.

“I don’t love music more than anything else,” admits the lead singer and songwriter Mattias Bjorkas, “which means I haven’t been blinded by the love of music. And I have certainly not been blinded by money. I was a very straight-edge, socialist youth – Cats on Fire has been my lesson in frustration and dealing with second-bests sometimes, but we try to always make the music move on and matter.“

The five-piece has come together in fits and starts from the small, isolated town of Vaasa, sharpening and solidifying their magic every step of the way. “No music industry tentacles were long enough to reach as far up north as we were in Vaasa,” Bkorkas says. “But trying to be loved was always my main preoccupation, whatever political or musical ideas I may have presented as the true spirit of Cats on Fire. I nurtured the idea of a small, provincial army that was musically righteous and ready to strike against the trendy, metropolitan hypocrisy.”

They make songs you can’t shake and write lyrics that stop your day in its tracks, the sound exquisitely puckered throughout by Ville Hopponen‘s addictive licks, Iiris Viljanen‘s poptastic keyboards, and the band’s sheer stealth and grace. The last time you felt this way about indie-pop was Pulp. Yeah – that good. Judging by tonight’s rapturous reception, it’s only their own shyness that’s stopping Cats on Fire becoming major stars.

“In big cities,” Bjorkas says, “we observe all the other groups of four or five people with good haircuts, unable to shake the worst thought of all – that each of these 10,000 bands had an idea as valid as our own.”

They don’t. Not by a long chalk. All Blackshirts To Me is European album of the year. Avail yourselves immediately.”

Sadly, it would be the last album the band would release. Across the three LPs and various singles and EPs (many of which were collated on the compilation Dealing In Antiques, released in 2010), there are more than 50 songs from which to narrow things down to as perfect an ICA as I can deliver. It’s 12 songs long, on the grounds that it deserves to be.

Side A

1. Horoscope (track 1 on Our Temperance Movement, 2009)

2. My Friend In A Comfortable Chair (single, 2007 and track 8 on Dealing In Antiques, 2010)

3. The Smell Of An Artist (from Draw In The Reins EP, 2006 and track 14 on Dealing In Antiques)

4. Draw In The Reins (re-recorded version – track 11 on The Province Complains 2007)

5. 1914 and Beyond (track 7 on All Blackshirts To Me, 2012)

6. Tears In Your Cup (track 6 on Our Temperance Movement, 2009)

Side B

1. I Am The White-Mantled King (track 1 on The Province Complains, 2007)

2. My Sense Of Pride (track 2 on All Blackshirts To Me, 2012)

3. Letters From A Voyage To Sweden (track 3 on Our Temperance Movement, 2009)

4. Higher Grounds (track 3 on The Province Complains, 2007)

5. Our Old Centre Back (track 1 on All Blackshirts To Me, 2012)

6. The Borders Of This Land (track 8 on Our Temperance Movement, 2009)

JC

Cathal Coughlan

CATHAL COUGHLAN

nme_cover_23may_1992

It’s actually quite an unbelievable coincidence that the above cover of the NME appeared exactly 30 years to the day when Cathal Coughlan‘s death was announced by his family. It’s also quite poignant that the photo has Cathal pictured alongside comedian Sean Hughes, another who died well before his time.

I can’t claim to be the fount of all knowledge in respect of the late musician. I have but a handful of releases in the collection, dating back to Microdisney singles in the mid 80s, having taken a bit of shine to the band after seeing a live appearance on Whistle Test on BBC TV. I only ever saw him live on one occasion, when Fatima Mansions played King Tut’s in Glasgow on a hot summer’s night in 1991. I’ve a copy of a single he co-recorded with Martin Stephenson in the early 90s – talking of which, I’ve some sort of vague recollection of him appearing on stage once with the Daintees, although that may very well just be wishful thinking on my part.

I know I should have paid more attention, especially when many folk wrote such incredibly positive reviews about Song of Co- Aklan, his sixth and what proved to be his final solo album, which came out just a couple of months ago. It honestly was on my list of things to pick up, but I was holding back as Rachel always asks for a few ideas for my upcoming birthday. When I do give it a listen, it will be with real sadness.

The tributes flowed freely last week when the news finally emerged that Cathal had passed on 18 May after a long illness. It was typical of the man that he chose to keep his poor health to himself, with not one feature on his new album indicating that it had been recorded under difficult circumstances and that it was certain to be his last piece of music. I was in Bristol for a few days last week and picked up the news via a social media posting from a friend, and found it hard to take in. I listened to Gideon Coe‘s show on BBC 6 Music that night, and he took the opportunity to read out various tweets and messages from fans, as well as air some songs recorded for BBC sessions over the decades.

My thanks to flimflamfan and chaval for taking time to share some thoughts about Cathal when they left comments on the Leonard Cohen/Ian McCulloch piece the other day – having no laptop with me, I was unable to do anything with the blog and was feeling awful at the thought of the death not being recognised in any shape or form.

As I said a few paras ago, I am no expert at all on Cathal Coughlan. But what I do know is that he was responsible for writing and singing on one of my favourite singles of all time. Here’s a recap of something I wrote back in February 2013:-

“Someone on Discogs described this 1990 single as having the voice of an avenging angel having a bad day and guitar chords like a firing squad.

I wish I could sum up songs as brilliantly as that.

The only reason this never made my 45 45s at 45 countdown all those years ago is that I missed out on it when it was originally released. My first exposure came via an end of the year round-up on some late evening show on Radio 1. I bought the CD single the next time I was in a shop and paid almost £5 for the privilege.

Since rekindling my love for vinyl, I’ve got my grubby hands on bits of plastic both here and over in Canada. This is a record that should be in every music fan’s collection”

mp3 : Fatima Mansions – Blues For Ceausescu

The music Cathal Coughlan was involved in over the decades was rarely on the commercial side of listenable. It always seemed as if he didn’t care about being anything more than a cult figure, seeming to even go out of his way to sabotage things when Fatima Mansions opened up for U2 on various dates across Europe in 1992, none more so than in Milan where be baited the 12,500-strong crowd with a number of derogatory comments about the Pope. This was after he had pretended to stick a bottle of holy water, in the shape of the Virgin Mary, up his arse. It was his way of dealing with an audience that had been hostile to his band from the off, the type that wanted only to see U2 and nobody else.

By all accounts, this sort of behaviour was at odds with his real life persona, described by many as a gentleman.

I’ll finish with one of the singles I bought back in the day:-

mp3: Microdisney – Town To Town

In reaching #55 in 1987, this lovely piece of indie-pop was as close to having a hit as that band ever got.

JC

Fall

THE WONDERFUL AND FRIGHTENING SERIES FOR SUNDAYS (Part 49)

humerons

I mentioned last week that I never bought anything The Fall issued while with Cherry Red Records as I’d lost my way with the band by this point in time. Drew over at Across The Kitchen Table remained a devotee, but all too often he would tell of going along to a gig and feeling let-down and/or short-changed.

I might have felt the same way if I was the type who made something out of Record Store Day as the next 45 to be released by MES & co was for that event in April 2012, with a limited run of 1,000 copies of a 7″ single with the title Night of the Humerons, but neither the a-side nor b-side featured a song of that name.

mp3: The Fall – Victrola Time

The a-side was seemingly developed from an instrumental track called Damflicters that had been worked up during sessions for the Ersatz G.B. album, released in November 2011. It might have been a limited edition 45, but it became widely available in May 2013 when it was included on the next studio album, Re-Mit.

It’s electronica Fall, and MES doesn’t start singing until about 70 seconds in….and it, to be frank, is awful. Here’s your lyrics in full:-

Science hasn’t recorded it yet…
And I don’t want bennies….jellies….

I said MDMA years!
You can’t feel, you can’t feel Victrola
Victrola teller, Victrola teller
From ’28 from ’16,
Victrola,
DMA years,
Stop!
J-j-just stop
J-just can’t
Just can’t
Post meth and DMA years
The pre non-MDM and net years
The post meth MDMA years
The pre-non-MDM and meth years
The post meth and also DMA years
The MDMA years
The pre-black eyes and tears of today years
The post-meth MDMA years
MDMA years…
Can’t feel I could cry
Joy
The pre-black eyes and tears of today years

The b-side was a live version of a track from Erstatz G.B.:-

mp3: The Fall – Taking Off (live)

At least it’s marginally better than the a-side.

JC

Sons & Daughters

SATURDAY’S SCOTTISH SONG : #309: SONS AND DAUGHTERS

Sons-Daughters_049a-copy

Sons and Daughters were mentioned less than two weeks ago, with a look at Dance Me In, a quite superb single released in June 2005.

The band was also the subject of ICA #199 back in November 2018, and I’m returning to something written as part of that post as it nails a particular song:-

mp3: Sons and Daughters – Medicine

The opening track on the band’s first full album, The Repulsion Box (2005), is what can only be described as a hoedown stomp on speed and which sets the tone for much of what was to follow on the rest of the record. Oh, and it features the best use of a mandolin on any piece of music since….well, the track Fight which can be found on debut mini-album Love The Cup (2003).