Frankosonic

Smash Hits Xmas Flexi 1982

2011-12-06T14:12:00.001Z

Childhood memories of Christmas aren't complete without this ridiculous flexidisc that came free with Smash Hits magazine in December 1982. That's not really 29 years ago is it?

Neil Tennant is credited with the idea, Mark Ellen narrates, and the whole thing is produced by backroom radio legend Trevor Dann.

It's basically a string of brief christmas messages from popstars of the day, strung together to make it sound like they're all at the Smash Hits party (apart from The Police - who are "on a desert island" for some reason).

Oh and a few adverts for Black Levi's (the sponsors) which we found hilarious at the time and even now I can't see a pair black jeans without saying "black leeevi's" in my head.

Artists featured are ABBA, ABC, Adam Ant, Bananrama, Boy George, Bucks Fizz, Captain Sensible, Duran Duran, Fun Boy Three, Haircut 100, Imagination, Madness, Mari Wilson, Musical Youth, Paul Weller, Police, Steve Strange, Toyah and Midge Ure.

1982 Smash Hits Xmas Flexi

Not deliberate but I seem to have posted yet another flexidisc...hmm. Can i keep this up?

Blammo - Drastic Plastic Flexi

2011-11-06T11:21:00.001Z

I suddenly thought about this today as 1) it's another classic Yorkshire flexidisc from the late 1980's and 2) it's pretty much next to The Bridewell Taxis flexi in my 7" singles box

I feel sure I must have seen Sheffield's Blammo play at some point in order to have triggered the flexi purchase, but I can't for the life of me remember where or when. Mind fog..

The track "Drastic Plastic" was a political song against the Tory politician Colin Moynihan, who briefly tried to introduce an ID Card system for football fans, in a desperate bid to try and stamp out football hooliganism. Luckily for us it failed and this idiot was never heard of again. Oh actually I tell a lie...Lord Moynihan is a Director of the London Organising Committee of the 2012 Olympic Games. Jesus.

The second track is an homage to the legendary footballer & indiepop fan Pat Nevin. He made his name at Chelsea back in the 80's when Chelsea were neither rich, fashionable or successful. He likes The Fall...what more needs to be said?

NB. Both tracks are pop perfection.

Track 1. Drastic Plastic
Track 2. Perfect Pat
Year. 1989
Label. Rinkytink Records RTF001

Blammo - Drastic Plastic flexi

The Bridewell Taxis - Lies Flexi

2011-11-05T12:55:00.003Z

This is another one for my chum Ricky at the Electronic Vibes blog Electronic Vibes

He recently posted the first single by Leeds band The Bridewell Taxis and it reminded me of the flexi I bought at one of their gigs circa 1989.

Upon my arrival in Leeds, the local indie music scene was dominated by two factions – The Edsel Auctioneer (who were going down the Dinosaur Jr / Buffalo Tom proto-grunge path and I have discussed already on this blog) and The Bridewell Taxis (who were basically just what the press quickly termed “baggy”)

The band themselves looked like thugs from the Elland Road terraces, and although the baggy genre will always be historically linked with ecstasy usage, I can tell you that in these early days the audience was mainly booze-fuelled. I saw more drunken idiot audience fighting (actually mostly intimidation and menace) at Happy Mondays & Bridewell Taxis gigs than anywhere else in my life.

I admit I always enjoyed the contradiction of The Bridewell Taxis tough-man image with the, frankly quite soppy, lyrics and jangly sound. In fact who EVER looked tough whilst playing a trombone? It was, as we used to say at the time, well weird man.

If you care to click the above link to their wikipedia page and read the band's history, you'll understand what I mean.

Track 1. Lies
Track 2. Just Good Friends
Year. 1988

The Bridewell Taxis – Lies flexi

As a bonus - there were 3 old flyers tucked in the flexi sleeve, so I thought I'd scan them too. Baggy memories...ah

Kitchens Of Distinction - Peel Session 23rd August 1992

2011-10-25T16:00:00.005Z

Oh go on - while I'm at it. If anyone thinks I am working through these DAT-sourced Peel Sessions in alphabetical order then you might be right (for today at least)

I first heard Kitchens Of Distinction in 1989 when Peel played their debut single "Prize". I immediately went out and bought it and then got progressively less interested in them, but listening to their back catalog a few weeks ago I was reminded that actually, they were a great band. Maybe that loss of interest was more down to me going away to Poly and finding myself drowning in a sea of excellent music and gigs almost every night. I never saw Kitchens Of Distinction though - did they tour much? Who knows.

Also a mystery is why it took three years for them to get their first Peel Session. We may never know, but here it is..

Peel Session August 23rd 1992

Producer - Mike Engles
Engineer - Dave Mccarthy
Studio - Maida Vale 3

TRACKLIST

1. Four Men
2. Mad As Snow
3. When In Heaven
4. Blue Pedal

LINE UP

Patrick Fitzgerald (Bass, Vocals)
Julian Swales (Guitar, Harmonica)
Dan Goodwin (Drums)

Download Peel Session

Kit - Peel Session 28 November 1989

2011-10-25T16:00:00.004Z

To celebrate John Peel Day I thought I'd post another obscure Peel Session (again direct from the source DAT not off-air recording).

This one came from Liverpool band Kit, who only released a handful of records at the back-end of the 80's. They made a sort of indie-skiffle sound and the singer perfected her wobbly-larynx vocal style long before that pant-wetter from Bright Eyes did it.

There doesn't seem to be much out there on the web but here's a couple more links:

http://music-isms.blogspot.com/2010/04/kit-singles-1989-90.html

http://www.myspace.com/kitliverpoolband

Peel Session November 28th 1989

Producer - Dale Griffin
Engineer - Mike Robinson
Studio - Maida Vale 5

TRACKLIST

1. How To Break This
2. Up On A Wire
3. Cheatin' My Heart
4. What If I Fell

LINE UP

Lin Sangster (Guitar, Vocals)
Michelle Brown (Bass)
Tony Smith (Drums)
Kenny Manson (Guitar)
Phil Luckin (Trumpet)

Download Peel Session

Ian McCulloch Peel Session 4-Dec-1989

2011-09-02T17:00:00.002Z

Another DAT-sourced Peel Session in pristine quality – this time from Ian McCulloch circa his first solo album “Candleland”.

Given that the Bunnymen hadn’t done a Peel Session for a good 6 years prior to this, I was never sure if this was because Peel had just gone off them or if they were simply above it all once they made it big in the States? Nonetheless I have good memories of this session going out and Peel sounded as enthusiastic as ever. That said, there seems to have been a 3 month gap between recording and transmission, so it may not have been a priority for the show to broadcast it.

Anyway – we have three tracks from Candleland and a 4th track “Damnation” that would end up on the 2nd solo album “Mysterio”.

I really liked the Candleland album but bear in mind that this was around the time that the Bunnymen were still ploughing ahead without McCulloch (and yes I did see them play in Bootle at their “comeback” gig – it wasn’t pretty) so it didn’t take much to win that particular battle..

The Peel Session versions were much less polished and lacked the 80’s production sheen of the album so they actually sound better in retrospect.

EDIT - reupped with the squeal in the middle of Damnation sorted out! Sorry about that

Tracklist:

01 - Faith And Healing
02 - Flickering Wall
03 - Damnation
04 - Candleland

Line Up:

Ian McCulloch: Guitar & Vocals
Steve Humphreys: Drums
Edgar Summertime: Bass
John McEvoy: Guitar
Mike Mooney: Guitar & Keyboards

Ian McCulloch - 1989 Peel Session

Cranes Peel Session 1990

2011-08-26T07:46:00.001Z

A quick response to a request via the Peel Group. Here we have the 2nd Peel Session from Cranes. I always thought of them as a sort of demonic Cocteau Twins.

Bought their mini album after hearing their 1st Peel Session back at University in 1989, but never really followed them much further than that. Saw them live at the Duchess Of York and the singer spent the whole gig looking like she was about to burst into tears. Maybe she was?

Tracks:
1. Give
2. Da Da 133 (I Dreamed)
3. Inescapable

The quality on this is perfect as it was sourced from a pre-broadcast DAT (so no FM compression). Thanks to the original provider of the tracks - you know who you are.

Cranes - Peel Session 1990

Avians Alight

2011-08-24T17:28:00.000Z

I keep getting so close to posting, I have lots of new stuff to rant about (not least the new Pete Astor album and my continuing experiments down at the obscure end of Mojo's classic album list) but this afternoon I stumbled on an album by Avians Alight which has tipped me into mode.

A few years back we travelled to London to see Damien Jurado play at the Luminaire and he had a great cello player in his band called Jenna. Truth be told, both the wife and I were a little taken by her and disappointed when she disappeared from the Jurado line-up at subsequent gigs.

I remember seeing that she was working on her own stuff under the name Trouble Town but then heard nothing more. By chance today I saw a tweet about Avians Alight and it turned out to be the same project renamed.

This is my first attempt at a Bandcamp embed rather than a direct download, but hopefully it will work and someone might buy the album. This track is just beyond gorgeous..

Unico by avians alight

Check the whole album here.

Avians Alight

The only downside is that apart from the Bandcamp page, there seems to be virtually nothing else online, no gigs, no reviews, no interviews, no pictures, no nothing. Why??? This world is all wrong.

Edwyn Collins - I Hear A New World REMIXED 2 x 12" Promo

2011-04-29T13:25:00.003Z

Another Edwyn Collins-based request I’m afraid – this time an unusual promo from 1997 – being a double white label 12” pack featuring a set of remixes

A1 Superficial Cat (Red Snapper Mix)
B1 Seventies Night (Deadly Avenger Supershine Mix)
B2 Superficial Cat (Red Snapper Vocal Mix)

C1 Downer (James Lavelle Mix)
C2 The Magic Piper Of Love (The Wiseguys Sniper Mix)
D1 Adidas World (Adileted By Sebstian Lewsley)
D2 Downer (James Lavelle Vocal Mix)

For the most part these are all otherwise unreleased except for:

D1 is on the 2nd CD of the Adidas World single - credited as “Episode 10 (No, No, No, Adidas World)”
and
B1 later appeared on the Ave Marina compilation CD on Marina Records

So I’ve been asked to post up the whole thing, given that the remixes aren’t even available as paid downloads anywhere either I figured why not?

Edwyn Collins - I Hear A New World REMIXED 2 x 12" Promo

Classic Albums Of The 1970's Part 4

2011-04-29T07:00:00.002Z

The fourth and final batch of my Sounds Of The Seventies experiment are:

1971 Beaver & Krause – Gandharva
1970 Emitt Rhodes – Emitt Rhodes
1971 Eugene McDaniels – Headless Heroes Of The Apocalypse
1970 Honeybus – Story
1970 Little Milton – If Walls Could Talk

To categorise these albums, again I know nothing about any of them. Only Emitt Rhodes have I even vaguely heard of.

And so the final verdict?

Beaver & Krause’s Gandharva is a crazy album, stylistically all over the place and interesting with it. Definitely one to listen to a few more times to get the benefit.

Emitt Rhodes is great pop music. Unbelievable really that he recorded this at home on his own in 1970. Equally unbelievable that he isn’t more widely known, compared to a lot of other people operating in similar areas at the time. You can hear its influence on people like Ben Folds and definitely Zumpano

Eugene McDaniels is another slab of craziness. Not at all what I expected, it is in fact heavily funky and immediately apparent that I’ve heard at least one of these songs before sampled in hip-hop tracks (Beastie Boys “Get It Together” for one..). The lyrics are brilliant too.

Honeybus are even poppier than Emitt Rhodes. To the point where they just sound too much like The Beatles (or more specifically McCartney) for me to believe that this is really a classic album and not just a bright and pleasant but ultimately formulaic pop album.

The Little Milton album is also a stormer, like a deeper, more rough and ready Otis Redding, this has already been added to my list of great soul albums. Some of the brass arrangements are sublime.

All in all a much more satisfying batch than the previous lot with all the albums giving me pleasure, and Honeybus’ crime was simply being too “nice”. Here is a selection of tunes from within

Eugene McDaniels – Headless Heroes
Little Milton – Kansas City
Emitt Rhodes – Live Til You Die

And so I move onto the 1960’s. My initial investigations lead me to believe that there will be a LOT of rare and obscure psychedelia in there, and most of it will be post 1965...

Damien Jurado Live At Landlocked - AKA Record Store Day Sucks

2011-04-28T09:00:00.001Z

Last week saw this year's Record Store Day - not just here in the UK, but in the US too.

A fine idea in principle and one that I've done my best to support over the past few years.

You see, time was when the 15 year old me would go into town on the bus and spend all afternoon walking from record shop to record shop, browsing the racks. In Derby alone we had a route that went RE Cords – Siren Records– (later)BPM Records – Collectors Records – Virgin (in Debenhams) – Our Price – HMV – Spot-On Sounds – Way Ahead Records. I may even have forgotten one or two (I’ve deliberately not included the market stalls like Felix Records as they mainly sold oldies and second hand stuff).

Now we have no independent record shops left here – and even HMV has moved it’s tiny selection of CD’s upstairs (with no lift so I’m screwed if I have the pushchair).

Even the mighty Selectadisc in nearby Nottingham is a fading memory.

So whilst Record Store Day is seemingly designed to boost trade in the few remaining stores , it seems like they’re fighting a losing battle.

This year in particular it feels like they might as well give up. I know too many people who queued at the shops to get the “exclusive and limited product” – only to find that it had already sold out. Then went home to find pages and pages of auctions for the very goods they couldn’t get in the real world – being hawked online via ebay, at two and three times the price.

So you wonder what is the point?

The net effect has been to increase online sales and drive up prices. Neither of which really benefits the shops that it purports to be supporting. Too many people making a quick buck by snapping up the goods and immediately selling them again online at enormous mark-up.

I’m not daft enough to think that this is somehow an outrageous surprise. It’s called the free market. If someone lives near enough to a city that still has a shop, and can be bothered to queue up then why shouldn’t they take the opportunity? Actually the answer is “because they should be better human beings” but as Nick Cave said “people just ain’t no good”.

I love record shops and I dearly wish that there was still at least one in my town, or even nearby – but the world moves on. I think we’ve reached the point where Record Store Day has surpassed its usefulness. Like in the TV medical drama when the idealistic doctor is still frantically applying the defibrillator paddles long after the patient is dead. It needs someone to put their arm round its metaphorical shoulder and say “come on..that’s enough”

The most annoying part of all this is that it does seem to spur the record companies into releasing some interesting and unique products. At which point you have to say “why don’t you do that anyway you useless fuckers?”.

The final straw for me personally was that the one record I wanted above all was the Damien Jurado Live At Landlocked vinyl LP – but this was only available in the US Record Store Day version of events – so I couldn’t get to a shop that stocked it without catching a plane. Of course a handful of ebay resellers will ship to the UK – for a small fortune. Plus I’ve been stung by our friendly customs tax too many times to know that you can add at least another £15 to the price of a vinyl LP, so I’m looking at the best part of £70-£80 to own a copy. The benefit of that transaction to Record Stores would be precisely zero pounds and no p.

Meanwhile in the modern world, someone rips it to mp3 and I just have to make do with hearing it in digital format and my record shelf remains unadorned.

I’ll probably get a world of shit for this post, but I felt at the very least it needed addressing.

Damien Jurado - Live At Landlocked LP

As for the Jurado record - it's as brilliant as I'd hoped for. He's amazing.

Classic Albums Of The 1970's Part 3

2011-04-27T18:00:00.001Z

The third batch of my Sounds Of The Seventies experiment are:

1972 Jorge Ben – Ben
1971 Spring – Spring
1972 D.R. Hooker – The Truth
1972 Bobby Charles – Bobby Charles
1971 Mickey Newbury - Frisco Mabel Joy

To categorise these albums is slightly easier than the first two batches as I know nothing about any of them in equal measure.

So the verdict?

Jorge Ben caused me concern as it was mostly pretty dire samba-pop with very ropey production. The Mojo review had said that one of the album tracks contained the original melody to Rod Stewart’s “Do You Think I’m Sexy?” and I was baffled because I couldn’t hear it anywhere. It was at this point that I realised that I’d downloaded the wrong album! Once I’d rectified the error, I can safely say that the 1972 album “Ben” (as opposed to the earlier “Jorge Ben” album which I had just erroneously listened to) is much better but still veering towards the novelty side of latino pop. Maybe it was the Buena Vista Social Club of its time? I can imagine in the early 70’s it might have been the height of sophistication to listen to something like this, but in 2011 it’s most definitely nothing special.

Spring were an obscure Prog band from Leicester and this is their only album (so no mistakes to be made on the download front). As far as Prog goes it’s pretty restrained for the most part and is actually my favourite album of this bunch of five. Lots of mellotron, acoustic guitars and some quite folky passages. Actual tunes too.

D.R. Hooker (not to be mistaken with Dr Hook of “Sexy Eyes” fame) is another prog rock obscurity and generally as overblown as Spring is reserved. While I didn’t hate it, I couldn’t find anything to get me hooked. I usually find with Prog bands that they have one short bit in one song that grabs me and then I pick up the rest from there. There must be something special about this record though as it was only ever a private pressing, yet made it into the Mojo book. Not mainstream enough for a Wikipedia page though.

Bobby Charles as a younger man wrote “See You Later (Alligator)” and then later in life recorded this solo album with members of The Band. Like The Band I find this country-rock type stuff quite dreary and I skipped most tracks after a minute or so. Pah!

Mickey Newbury seems to be well regarded in Country Music circles but I hated this album even more than Bobby Charles.

All in all the most disappointing batch so far with the Spring album standing out as the only one which I can see justifies its inclusion in the Mojo book.

This track is one of the aforementioned restrained Spring tracks. A piano ballad with some touching lyrics (and a hint of a speech impediment “once I was a dweamer...”)

Spring – Song To Absent Friends (The Island)

It’s also worth checking out the Jorge Ben track which turned into “Do You Think I’m Sexy” – if only for the incredibly poor mouth-trumpet solo that sounds like someone’s Dad humming along with the tune (at about 1min 30s in)

Jorge Ben - Taj Mahal

Classic Albums Of The 1970's Part 2

2011-04-22T09:00:00.002Z

The second batch of my Sounds Of The Seventies experiment are:

1973 Dan Penn – Nobody’s Fool
1974 Lamont Dozier – Black Bach
1974 Richard & Linda Thompson – I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight
1975 Jade Warrior – Waves
1975 Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert

To categorise these albums:

Dan Penn I know from some of the songs he's written ("Dark End Of The Street" in particular) but never heard any of his solo stuff

Lamont Dozier - much the same thing. The album title was enough to convince me!

The Richard & Linda Thompson album is one I've been toying with buying for years and Last.FM regulalry sticks it in my "recommended listening" stream, so it's not strictly true that I've not heard it. I've just not heard ALL of it.

Jade Warrior I'd never heard of despite a penchant for a bit of Prog and having a Father-In-Law with an immense library of obscure Prog records. He probably has this but I've just never had the pleasure

Keith Jarrett is one jazzer I've never checked out, being more of a brass man than piano when it comes to jazz.

And the verdict?

Dan Penn was much as I expected, good songs, good arrangements and a good voice, but it doesn't grab me. There must be loads of albums in a similar style out there on a par with this?

Lamont Dozier really disappointed me on first listen. The second time around I warmed a bit more, but as with the Dan Penn album - it doesn't hold any surpises for me

The Richard & Linda Thompson is as good as I hoped song-wise. Linda's voice is beautiful and Richard's guitar playing really is something else at times, but I just can't get on with his voice. Now if Dan or Lamont were singing Richard's parts then we'd be in business.

Jade Warrior - not quite as prog as I anticipated, it's mostly quite ambient. Two long pieces that are actually various segments of music glued together. It's the sort of thing I like listening to when I want to read. Not so good when I'm driving or working (which is where I did listen to it). Falling asleep in both situations is frowned upon.

Keith Jarrett on the other hand has left me stunned. I'm only on day 2 and already I've discovered two albums that are as good as anything else I've ever heard. I still can't fathom how this was all improvised live, as it doesn't sound that way at all. Some of the passages are quite exquisite and as far away from "jazz" as is possible. I absolutely need to hear more of Jarrett's records, but now I'm scared that there is nothing better out there.

There are only 4 tracks on the album and 3 are quite lengthy so I'm posting the shortest, just to give you an idea and to save on bandwidth, but as with the Townes Van Zandt live album, the record has to be heard in its entirety to fully appreciate the performance. This track isn't even the best one..

Keith Jarrett - Part II c.mp3

Classic Albums Of The 1970's Part 1

2011-04-21T18:00:00.002Z

Getting so frustrated with every new band I hear sounding like a poor-copy of a band from 20 years ago who already sounded like a poor-copy of a band from 20 years ago even back then, I devised a strategy to flex my musical brain.

A few years back I picked up a copy of Mojo’s Classic Album Guide from one of those discount bookshops (£3 for a book the size of a breezeblock) and whenever I find myself flicking through it I come across albums I’ve either never heard of, or never got round to checking out. And then never get round to doing anything about it.

So picking a decade (the 1970’s to start with) I’ve plucked 20 albums that fit into these two categories and intend to listen to them over the coming weeks.

It seems to work out best in batches of five, so for batch one I’ve been listening to:

1973 Townes Van Zandt - Live At The Old Quarter, Houston TX
1977 Suicide – Suicide
1978 Nick Lowe – Jesus Of Cool
1979 The Roches – The Roches
1979 Linton Kwesi Johnson – Bass Culture

To categorise these albums:

Suicide and Townes Van Zandt are two artists I’d consciously avoided over the years due to the constant name-dropping I’d seen in the music press amongst bands I didn’t necessarily care for.

Nick Lowe I know a fair amount about via his Elvis Costello associations and various cover versions, but never really listened to his own stuff

Linton Kwesi Johnson I’d heard many times via John Peel but never really got on board with the poetry aspect of reggae. Dub Reggae I can listen to all day, but I struggle with poetry at the best of times.

The Roches I know absolutely nothing about.

And the verdict?

Suicide is exactly like I imagined it would be. It’s like they’re trying to sound edgy and tough over gay disco backing tracks. Maybe that’s the point? I actually quite like it.

The Roches I came to with no such pre-conceptions but it’s all a bit underwhelming. There is nothing here to dislike and I can see it growing on me after a few listens, but an instant classic it certainly isn’t. I only realised after listening that Robert Fripp produced it, but it doesn't really show. Mind you, I've found that most of Fripp's non-King Crimson work takes some time to wheedle its way into my affections.

The Nick Lowe album sounds horribly dated and represents that period where the lines between pub-rock and punk were being substantially blurred. A couple of the songs are just too embarassing to listen to, but for the most part there are good songs buried in the production.

Bass Culture probably needs more attention paying to it than I have given it. Maybe I've just been watching too much Rastamouse recently to take it seriously (and serious it certainly is). Musically it's great, but I guess that's not the issue. Another one I have to give some more time too.

And finally the Townes Van Zandt live album. 27 tracks of just one guy and his guitar recorded in a tiny Texas bar over 5 nights sounds like it could be hard-going but I have to admit to being totally blown-away by how good this record is.

To carry off that many songs in that setting without losing the audience is tough at the best of times, but the whole show is so utterly captivating that it's over before you even begin to realise the time. You get a real feel for the atmosphere from the heckling of the announcer at the start ("Upstairs!") and quite how the rowdies are kept in check by the intimacy of the performance (even Townes seems amazed by the pin-drop silence during the first song). Some good surreal jokes in there too ("What's white and crawls up your leg? Uncle Ben's Perverted Rice")

Taking just one song out of context doesn't really do the album justice, but here's a couple of good 'uns which you may know from cover versions by the Tindersticks and Lemonheads respectively.

Townes Van Zandt - Kathleen [Live]
Townes Van Zandt - Waiting 'Round To Die [Live]

James Kirk

2011-04-13T16:11:00.001Z

Yesterday was one of those brilliant days where things conspire to make you smile constantly.

We woke up to the news that my chum Steve Domino (and more specifically his good lady wife) had given birth to a baby girl. Had an hour or so of breakfast time hanging out with our own baby and then found great quality New Order bootleg from 1985 online and spent the rest of the morning listening to it.

I’d put a load of our old crap on Ebay too and that finished around lunchtime and breaking the three figure barrier by the time it all closed.

Back home later for tea time with the baby and then on to see Derby County beat the Dirty Leeds United scum (coming back from 1-0 down in a majestic performance with a stunning winning goal) with my eldest. He’s been totally off football recently as he’s turned 15 and discovered some of the more exciting things in life, but the win had us both on a high and we talked about music all the way home. He’s just getting into Nirvana and we had an awkward father-son moment when I mentioned the Incesticide album. He said “Dad – what’s a b-side?”

I was still smiling this morning, and just when I thought things couldn’t get much better I received a whole bunch of Peel Sessions in the email – sourced directly from the recordings on DAT (ie pre-broadcast quality). Some of these I’d never heard before and some were great sessions that I only had on old hissy tapes.

So to spread the joy I propose another Peel Sessions week like the one I had back in September last year. Probably starting in Easter week. Watch this space

And for no particular reason other than it makes me feel like a good summer is just around the corner, here's an obscure track from ex-Orange Juice legendary guitarist James Kirk. Inventor of the JANGLE!

James Kirk - Faraway Station

Twitter

2011-02-04T15:21:00.002Z

If you want to follow me talking mostly about football, sometimes about music, but always about nothing then I'm on Twitter @frankosonic

Orange Juice - Coals To Newcastle

2011-01-05T00:01:00.006Z

Before I start, I just want to be 100% clear about quite how much I love this boxset.

It feels like a long wait to finally have all this wonderful stuff compiled into such a beautiful package and I truly heart it to pieces. Rest assured that none of this post is intended to criticise the remarkable work done at Domino on this set.

In fact before we go any further can I just say... BUY IT HERE!

As an Orange Juice anthology it is almost entirely exhaustive, but my anorak has been twitching for while to try and document the gaps and anomalies for posterity if nothing else. So this is a review, not of its contents, but more a review of what ISN'T included, allowing any fellow trainspotters to easily identift what remains to be collected.

The main exclusions are the 7” single edits which is totally understandable, as they rarely offered anything other than a radio-friendly abbreviation of the full version (the main exception being Flesh Of My Flesh which appears in 7” and 12” versions as both are considerably different to each other, and indeed, the original album version) - but there are a few other little bits and pieces missing.

Disc One is arguably perfect and contains all the Postcard singles, the Ostrich Churchyard album, the instrumental and French versions of Poor Old Soul from the 90’s reissue of Blue Boy and the live tracks from the “Felicity Sessions”. The only omissions therefore are the two early Nu-Sonics bedroom demos that previously appeared on Orange Juice compilation CD’s of this era. A cover of The Ramones “I Don’t Care” was on The Glasgow School and a cover of The New York Dolls “Who Are The Mystery Girls” was an unlisted track on The Heather’s On Fire.

Oh and if we're talking about things that have previously been released on Orange Juice records but aren't technically by Orange Juice, then this first disc is also missing the 10" that came free with vinyl editions of "Ostrich Churchyard" in 1992 - known as 'The World's First 10" Irritation Disc'. It was an 18 minute chat between Edwyn and Alan Horne, talking about Orange Juice with all manner of giggling and annoying oscillation effects over the top.

I also seem to remember that Simon Goddard (author of the boxset liner notes) talked on his blog back in February about a cassette of early Orange Juice demos that came from James Kirk. The blog entry has now been deleted so I can't prove it, but there's no sign of those tunes either.

Disc Two is interesting. This version of "Untitled Melody" from You Can't Hide Your Love Forever runs at a different speed to the 1998 Polydor reissue (but is the only track that does). This was apparently a mistake on the previous remaster, and has been corrected now back to the original vinyl speed.

Of the singles included on this disk the missing tracks are:

The 7" edit of "Two Hearts Together" (the 7" version is a minute shorter. The instrumental break in the middle is half as long and the outro is totally different with Edwyn singing "together" repeatedly over the fade-out)

The 7" edit of "Hokoyo" (the 7" version is a good 2 minutes shorter than the version which appears on Rip It Up and the 10" single. It loses the 3rd verse and the extended instrumental outro is replaced by a briefer ending with a completely different selection of vocal ad-libs and whooping!)

Also the 12" version of "I Can't Help Myself" is missing. I can see why they chose to include the 7" version here instead as it's a much more succinct edit than the album version. The missing 12" mix is almost identical to the album version albeit some 20 seconds longer due to an extra 4 bars in the middle section breakdown and a couple more seconds of saxophone on the fade-out. The Vinyl Villain posted this 12" mix as part of his boxset review here

Disc Three also has some missing 7" versions. These are:

The 7" edit of "Rip It Up" (the 7" version is an edit of the album version, clocking in a minute and a half shorter because it loses the start of the intro, the keyboard solo and the instrumental passage towards the end. The fade out with Paul Quinn's vocal ad-libs is also a bit shorter. Kris from Domino tells me that it's also a slightly different mix - almost mono)

The 7" edit of "A Sad Lament" from the "Rip It Up" double 7" pack (this version is the same as the one that appears on Texas Fever and the Rip It Up 12" except it fades out quickly after about 3 minutes, losing the long instrumental outro section)

The 7" edit of "Lord John White And The Bottleneck Train" from the "Flesh Of My Flesh" 7" Picture Disc (which is essentially just the 12" version faded after 3 minutes, losing about a minute and a half of insanity at the end! NB if you're sad enough to be collecting these missing versions, the regular Flesh 7" contained the same long version of "Lord John White" as the 12". Only the 7" Picture Disc has the abridged version).

Technically it is also missing the 'Intermediate Edit' of "Rip It Up" which appeared on 2002 Edwyn/Orange Juice compilation "A Casual Introduction 1981-2001". That edit is almost identical to the album version, shortened only by the removal of the keyboard solo.

Back on the subject of "Lord John White And The Bottleneck Train" this was (and still is) credited to all the OJ members except Edwyn, and it's not clear if Edwyn even played on the track. However if you reverse the music you will hear that the whole of "Flesh Of My Flesh" is being sung by Edwyn in the background. This makes for quite an interesting (and possibly unlistenable) remix if you tweak the EQ a bit and trim the start - like this:

Orange Juice - Flesh Of My Flesh [Lord John White And The Bottleneck Train Reversi Mix]

Special mention should also go to the instrumental version of "In A Nutshell" that came from the Rip It Up sessions. It wasn't included in the boxset but was sent as an exclusive mp3 to all those who pre-ordered from Domino. Edwyn is apparently quite fond of the way the Rip It Up line-up would play this old song.

Disc Four is almost perfect apart from the Summer '83 version of Bridge has strangely been truncated by a couple of seconds to remove the final "Thank you!" from Edwyn's address to the fake crowd. I was surprised that there weren't more out-takes from the Texas Fever sessions as alluded to in the 1998 Polydor reissue liner notes. The rough mixes included are only slightly less polished than the released versions, but Edwyn described a lot of funk work-outs being recorded that he found difficulty writing vocals for.

Disc Five is, at first glance, principally missing the 2nd dub version of "A Place In My Heart" which was released on the NME's "Department Of Enjoyment" cassette in 1984. The version they do include is listed as the "12" Dub Version" from the "What Presence?!" single but that label is technically incorrect as it appeared in the same form on both 7" and 12" formats and neither were labelled at the time as anything other than "Dub Version".

Again, you can understand why Domino chose to omit one as they are very similar mixes, so it's only upon closer listening I realised that what they have actually included in the Boxset is, in fact, the "Dub Mix 2" from the NME tape, leaving the "What Presence?!" dub version still unreleased on CD.

The easiest way to tell the difference between the two is in the first verse where the vocal is almost acapella. The What Presence?! Dub Version 1 drops the drums and bass back in on the "just why" line whereas the NME version Dub Version 2 drops them back in two bars earlier on the line "gonna write you a letter".

In actual fact - to split hairs, the version on the boxset is not quite the same as the NME tape version as Zeke's drum clicks at the very start have been edited out! Am I being picky or what?

According to Kris the master tapes must have been mixed up as one was clearly labelled "dub mix for NME low EQ". To make up for the error he has kindly allowed me to offer the missing What Presence?! single dub version here

Orange Juice - A Place In My Heart [Dub Version 1]

The 3 live tracks from the cassette that came with the "What Presence?!" 7" (not fully credited in the liner notes - they were recorded for Radio Clyde at the Glasgow Pavilion on 26/3/84) have also had bits of Edwyn's chat removed. On the original tape at the start of "In A Nutshell" he says "it's time for a sensitive ballad now". The tracks are continuous too - not faded in between like the boxset, and at the end of "Simply Thrilled Honey" Edwyn says "unfortunately I've broken a string" then "OK this is a song, a very emotional song, about the day my hamster died its called Dying Day"

This editing down of Edwyn's patter continues with the 2 live tracks from the Lean Period flexi. These are credited as being from the soundtrack to "Dada With Juice" and the boxset does exactly that - gives us the audio tracks from the DVD, but the original flexi has the full soundboard versions which included Edwyn's intros which weren't on the video.

For reference, on the flexi, "Rip It Up" is introduced with the words

..but on the other hand there has been a lot of oppression up in Scotland cos my social worker told me that. He did you know (in an English accent) he really did! And just to prove it here's a song called "Rip It Up"

and What Presence is introduced with the words

..despite "Rip It Up" being a hit, for some reason perhaps the most phenomenal new single so far "What Presence?!" failed abysmally. Now, we want to know..why is this? Don't we?

It seems that these small cuts were done for space reasons, in order to squeeze a further track onto the disc which was already almost full.

Finally another labelling anomaly appears with the "Lean Period" 12" mix being referred to as a dub version. The original 12" only lists it as the "Extended Version". I'm guessing that these alternate labels came from the original master tapes.

Disc Six, is by Domino's own admission (unavoidably) missing the 1983 Janice Long Session. The original BBC tapes couldn't be found, and from discussions with Ken Garner the author of "In Session Tonight" it appears that this was Janice's first Radio 1 show and was broadcast from Manchester that night, not London, which possibly explains the absent master tape. An appeal from Domino to fans who may have had an off-air tape drew a blank, and although a copy has since surfaced, it is nowhere near CD quality. A real shame as it includes great versions of Rip It Up, Flesh Of My Flesh and Love Sick. At least you can now listen and pretend you've tuned into 1980's Medium Wave radio.

Orange Juice - BBC Radio 1 Janice Long Session 1983-03

It's good to see that the previously referred to "Mike Read" session of 1981 has now been corrected to "Richard Skinner". Again through Ken Garner's help, it was established that Mike Read stopped doing the Evening Session at the end of 1980 (moving to the Breakfast slot) and so from January 1981 all Evening Sessions were presented by Richard Skinner. In all probability when the producer booked the band in for the session it would still have been Mike Read's show so it's easy to see where the confusion arose.

As for the DVD, tracking down all the original Orange Juice footage would have been a mammoth task (not to mention expensive). I suspect there would have been a fair bit more included if licensing costs, space and time allowed. For example it would have been fun to see the two manic 1983 Top Of The Pops appearances for "Rip It Up" on there in high quality

Still it's good to see that they did include the promo video on the DVD. After all these years I finally realised that this is where the free still prints that came with Flesh Of My Flesh singles were grabbed from.

Similarly Edwyn's shirt on the Whistle Test clips on the DVD (and on the front of Smash Hits in the boxset booklet) - forms the tartan basis of the same single's cover.

In addition to those TOTP appearances there is the Blue Boy promo video that was made for the 1993 re-release

An appearance on Something Else in 1981 doing "Falling & Laughing"

An appearance on Channel 4's "The Switch" in 1983 (doing 2 or 3 more songs I think)

An appearance on Kids TV show "Get Set" in 1983 doing "Flesh Of My Flesh"

Zeke and Edwyn backing Paul Quinn on the BBC's "Rock Around The Clock" in 1984 (they also backed him on "The Oxford Roadshow" in 1983 doing "I Gave You Love")

As well as these low quality clips available online, ITN Source and BBC Motion Gallery list a few other items that have yet to be unearthed:

An appearance in the 1981 Danny Baker documentary "20th Century Box" being interviewed in a London cafe.

An appearance on "The Oxford Road Show" in 1983 doing "Rip It Up"

An interview with Edwyn and Zeke on "The Saturday Picture Show" in May 1984

And finally the only other thing I can think of right now is the hilarious and bizarre Promo/Advert that Edwyn & Zeke filmed for the last album - wich was featured as an extra on Edwyn's "Phantasmagoria" video concert.

Moving on to the remaster of "Dada With Juice" - this is a little bit strange to say the least. Full marks for restoring the correct name of the disc to "Dada With The Juice" (as per the title sequence) but there seems to be some unexplainable fades between songs that weren't present on the VHS original. For example the guitar intro on "What Presence?!" is totally removed and fades in part way through the ensuing feedback. I don't understand why, unless it was done accidentally as part of the DVD chapter marking?

Also the end credits have been completely excised - not only does this mean we miss a good minute or so of the last song, but also that everyone who worked on the original release loses out on a credit as they aren't included in the booklet. It doesn't even mention the Producer & Director Mike Mansfield (whom we can presumably thank for the crazy 80's video effects!).

The truncated ending also means you miss out on the post-credits pay-off to the art gallery interludes as Edwyn (or "Edwin" as the absent credits would have it) chooses a picture that was stuck to the shop window and Zeke acquires a massive poodle.

(..and breathe..)

Congratulations if you've made it to the end of all this rambling. Sometimes I wear the anorak a little too well. As usual, all comments and corrections are more than welcome.

Many thanks to Kris at Domino for putting up with my incessant questions and allowing me to post the missing dub mix.

And finally did I mention - you can't live without this:

Orange Juice - Coals To Newcastle Boxset BUY IT HERE!

You won't regret it - I promise

2010-12-28T00:01:00.002Z

Today would have been John Pyle’s 40th birthday.

I owe him an awful lot and I wish he was still around. The link is to a zip file of songs that always remind me of John in one way or another. Whether you knew him or not, it's still a groovy little playlist.

01 - Dave Brubeck Quartet - Unsquare Dance
(This was played every week at The Dial when we'd go out on a Friday night, sit on the steps and drink Holsten Pils)
02 - BOB - Esmerelda Brooklyn
(We went to see BOB in Leicester and John shouted for this track incessantly until they played it..slightly reluctantly)
03 - The The – Uncertain Smile [12’’ Version]
(I bought this from Selectadisc for his birthday one year not realising it was different to the LP version. “listen to the sax solo!”)
04 - Elvis Costello – Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head
(“Here comes Mr Misery”)
05 - Iggy Pop – Shades
(vivid memory of me saying I didn’t know the song and him trying to sing the chorus to me)
06 - New Order – Lonesome Tonight
(hard to pick one New Order song, but this was a favourite b-side from his pile of 12’’s)
07 - OMD – 4 Neu
(Stoz told me years later that this was John’s favourite OMD song)
08 - Happy Mondays – Freaky Dancin’
(this one reminds me of drinking Taboo and fighting in a caravan somewhere in Yorkshire)
09 - The Jesus & Mary Chain - Tast Of Cindy [Acoustic]
(We played the Some Candy Talking 12" to death and this was on the b-side)
10 - Orange Juice – My Dying Day
(“i hear your bugle playing”)
11 - The Rolling Stones - You Can't Always Get What You Want
(I remember John being insistent that I listen to this Stones track. Even though we weren't Stones fans he said it was amazing and he knew I'd love it. He was right.)
12 - The Wedding Present – Nothing Comes Easy
(one of the first CD singles I bought – he had this track on repeat for 2 hours at least)
13 - Tom Waits - Small Change (Got Rained On With His Own .38)
(The theme tune to Alex Cox's Moviedrome series of cult films on BBC2. Essential viewing)
14 - The Weather Prophets – Naked As The Day You Were Born
(John was quite fanatical about The Weather Prophets despite their leather trousers)
15 - Natalie Merchant – I May Know The Word
(no dry eyes)

John Pyle Mix

A Morrissey & Marr-y Christmas

2010-12-24T14:40:00.001Z

Having been a bit mean about Morrissey only a few days ago, I thought I'd redeem myself by posting this one up.

I don't normally share entire albums, but I'll make an exception for this one as it's a bootleg, so I don't feel so bad about making it available for free

Smiths bootlegs have always massively disappointed me, aside from the odd decent gig they usually tend to be really poor quality and have nothing of note to offer. At the end of the day, the band were only together for a few years and just didn't write and record THAT many songs.

After reading Simon Goddard's excellent trainspotters guide to The Smiths - Songs That Saved Your Life - it was obvious that, despite almost zero original songs remaining unreleased, there were actually a substantial amount of studio
sessions that were unheard.

I din't think I'd ever get to hear them either, as Morrissey and Marr continue to seem ambivalent towards any sort of rarities or reissue program.

However, yesterday I was sent a link to this new bootleg which contains a large proportion of the songs in question. Even better than that, the quality is pretty much A1 throughout!

I won't go into great detail as the tracklisting is pretty self-explanatory. Just believe me when I tell you it's best christmas present you could wish for

01 The Hand That Rocks The Cradle [John Porter Monitor Mix]

02 Reel Around The Fountain [Final Troy Tate Mix]

03 Rusholme Ruffians [Electric Demo Version July 84]

04 The Queen Is Dead [Full Length Version]

05 Sheila Take A Bow [John Porter Sitar Version January 1987]

06 This Night Has Opened My Eyes [Studio Version June 1984]

07 I Misses You [Marr Instrumental- Excerpt]

08 Ask [Original Pre-Remix Version]

09 There Is A Light That Never Goes Out [Monitor Mix - Alternate Vocal]

10 Is It Really So Strange? [June 1986 'Single' Version]

11 Frankly, Mr. Shankly [Trumpet Version November 1985]

12 Shoplifters Of The World Unite [Instrumental Version]

13 Girlfriend In A Coma [Monitor Mix - Alternate Vocal March 1987]

14 Death Of A Disco Dancer [Monitor Mix - Alternate Vocal March 1987]

15 Paint A Vulgar Picture [Monitor Mix - Alternate Vocal March 1987]

16 Heavy Track [Marr Instrumental - Excerpt]

The Smiths - Unreleased Demos & Instrumentals

Happy christmas.
Uncle Frankie
x

Captain Beefheart. RIP

2010-12-21T17:01:00.005Z

It seems like the whole world has had something to say about Captain Beefheart since his death last week, so I almost didn’t bother to add my tribute. Apparently the Amazon charts had Trout Mask Replica outselling the Beatles and Pink Floyd at the weekend. Unbelievable stuff. I can only be thankful that I’ve not seen Bono being wheeled out to say a few words.

But anyway, now the eulogy tsunami is tailing off a little bit, here we go..

From the day I first heard Abba Zaba in my housemate’s room in 1989 as an impressionable youth, through my subsequent years as a Beefheart obsessive, to the day I walked out the house last Friday and bumped into a friend who broke the news of his demise - I could never really find the words to explain why I liked his music quite as much as I did. It just seemed to make perfect sense. Even the senseless depths of Decals and Trout Mask sounded normal to me. The most frustrating thing for me was just not being able to understand why other people (whom I would normally consider to have similar tastes) couldn’t hear what I could hear. I was mocked quite openly in certain quarters and still am!

The obsessive streak has long since subsided. Back in the pre-internet early 90’s I would write real letters to other fans and swap cassette after cassette of badly dubbed rehearsal bootlegs and live shows. I collected books, fanzines and owned all the albums on vinyl AND CD (in my defence that compulsiveness paid off a few years ago when I sold most of my collection for the best part of £500 leaving me sensibly with just the CD’s)

I can’t get too upset over the death of someone who has been a recluse for more than 25 years. To all intents and purposes Captain Beefheart has been dead a long time. I just hope that the friends of Don Van Vliet are doing OK without him. For the rest of us his music will never die.

This is a repost from a couple of years back.

Captain Beeheart - Well [Remix]

No hecklers in heaven.

I Know It's Over

2010-12-17T00:01:00.005Z

Phew – I’m glad that’s all over. Now I can get on with the rest of my life.

Morrissey - It's Not Your Birthday Anymore

Like most massive childhood Smiths fans, I look upon Morrissey these days as a pantomime dame. A (porky middle-aged) caricature of himself. I’ve long since given up hope that he will ever release a good record again, and why would he (or how could he)?

That said, I still do listen to his new stuff just in case. This track was by far my favourite from the last album. The singles I found a bit painful but this one seemed to have been grown from the stem cells of Moz rather than just xeroxed.

Ruby Thursday

2010-12-16T00:01:00.005Z

Happy happy birthday to me.

This song seems appropriate given the particular anniversary of my shooting forth from my mother’s birth canal.

For some reason this Boss Hog song is way, way better than anything else I ever heard by them. In fact it’s an astonishingly good song.

I’m generally not a fan of my birthday – tonight I’m being taken for a meal. No doubt the christmas menu (again).

Boss Hog - Ruby

My thoughts are mainly with those friends who never made it this far.

Best Gig I Ever Done See #7 - FISH

2010-12-15T17:25:00.001Z

Fish - Derby University
December 13th 2010

I briefly mentioned my childhood love of Marillion once before on this blog (item 6 in this post) and on Monday night I fulfilled a dream that has been 25 years in the making.

The intervening years were spent in denial that I was ever really that big a fan. In fact I didn't actually hear any of Fish's solo albums until about 3 years ago when I finally started to reach that age where I genuinely didn't give a shit what people thought any more.

So when he announced a low-key acoustic tour and that he was coming to Derby I bought a ticket. As a mark of how far I've come - I didn't even press-gang anyone into coming with me. I went on my own and had a great time.

The support act weren't up to much, the drummer was doing that sitting on a box and thumping it thing and the singer looked like a lion and played some fairly ordinary folk blues stuff. I hit the bar.

I wasn't sure what to expect from Fish's set, never having seen him before, but knowing that it was just him, a guitar player and a keyboard player. If you'd said to me beforehand that they could carry off playing over 2 hours of his back catalog without any amount of backing tape trickery I'd have laughed, but that's exactly what they did. In fact the guitarist played the whole lot on a 3/4 size spanish acoustic. Even the solos.

It was amazing stuff. Fish was funny and engaged with the crowd like it was a room full of friends, and the format really did work. He gave it 100% and was totally into it, despite the lack of a rhythm section he still bopped round the stage like he was hearing one anyway. I think most of the crowd were too.

He talked about football, relationships, war, politics and..erm...filming your own porn..amongst other things - always setting the context for the songs - which he sang in great voice (as a huge Sinatra fan, I'm not speaking lightly when I say that his phrasing is up there with Frankie's)

The greatest thing for me was the way the stripped down format allowed you to absorb the lyrics and hear things you wouldn't normally pick up on. Let's be honest the showboat nature of Prog Rock seems to inadvertently do all it can to divert the listeners attention from the vocals. That's probably why so many Prog bands have such cheesey lyrics about goblins and shit. No one cares (apart from people who like goblins maybe, and to be honest I think there were probably a few in this crowd who would have been happy either way).

It seemed like no time at all before 2 hours of this had passed, and for an encore they did a Kayleigh / Lavender medley. In fact it was lovely to hear him be so humble about those "hits". He's a bloke who knows what those songs mean to people and what they mean to HIM in terms of how his life would have been if they hadn't been such globally successful singles.

I think my highlight was the song he did with just the piano behind him.

Fish - A Gentleman's Excuse Me

This is a live version from a few years ago, but you get the general vibe. It seems lazy to call it spine-tingling but it really was exactly that.

I've not enjoyed a gig so much in ages, and on the way home I had one of the strangest spiritual experiences of my life. Completely unrelated to the gig, as far as I can tell, but one more reason why I'll never forget Monday night.

In fact I must have been in a bit of an altered state by the end of the gig as I filled all my gaps in the CD rack when I saw that they were knocking out most of his solo albums for a fiver on the merchandise stand (and it seems via
his own website shop)

He may never be cool but I'm 40 tomorrow and I don't give a fuck. He's my hero.

The Later Works Of...Tim Buckley

2010-09-17T06:00:00.000Z

My intention when I posted this about the later works of Lou Reed, was that I would follow it up with more examples of artists with hidden gems buried in the sand after they had been generally agreed to have jumped the shark. It's only taken me 3 and a half years to get here..

The perceived wisdom amongst music snobs is that Tim Buckley had 4 distinct creative phases - the hippy-drippy folky, the jazz-folky, the avant-garde nutter and then the sweaty funk pig.

Only the first three of his phases are ever discussed in the context of his legend, and the fourth is often dismissed as being an embarassing footnote, but I'm here to tell you that the last three "funk pig" albums do actually have their moments.

In fact these days, the only Tim Buckley I can actually listen to in any great quantity is the late-period stuff.

Buckley had honed his voice to perfection, and as a white soul singer I don't believe there has been anyone better. He surrounded himself with superior funk musicians and their playing was solid gold.

Sadly those albums did suffer from overly-polished production which took the edge from some of the performances but when the original session tapes were discovered and released in 2001 on the Dream Belongs To Me compilation, it became immediately apparent that this was hard-edged and crucially funky. In fact the 1973 sessions totally blow the 1968 Happy Sad out-takes out of the water on this CD.

Quite honestly two of the finest Tim Buckley performances in existence here:-

Tim Buckley - Because Of You
Tim Buckley - Falling Timber

Black Lab

2010-09-16T06:00:00.002Z

On the same tape as the Joe Henry album I talked about here were a couple of other artists I didn't know and one of them was Black Lab.

Just this one song - which I come back to quite frequently as I love it so much. (sad to say that when I checked out the rest of the album it wasn't so hot)

It's another one of those reminiscing about lost love songs and my interpretation is that it's about a bloke who sees an ex-girlfriend at the airport, looking happy as she heads off on her travels, and coming to the conclusion that "she is much better without me".

My favourite line is

"some people change, others hang on 'til they can't anymore"

The one thing that makes the track stand out beyond all others though is the fantastic one-note guitar solo at around the 3 minute mark. There aren't many one-note guitar solos, in fact not enough, but this one really excels as it tortures the life out of that single note (OK it's probably got more than one note in it but not many more). I had it in my head that this was played by Greg Lisher of Camper Van Beethoven but I can't find any evidence on the internet to back that up. I'm probably wrong then.

Black Lab - Gates Of The Country

Yo La Tengo

2010-09-15T06:00:00.000Z

Yo La Tengo are one of those bands that have been around for years and years and consistently released good records, yet never seem to have risen to the hallowed ranks of indie royalty like, say, Sonic Youth. A real shame I'd say as YLT albums seem to have more songs (and less dicking about) than Thurston's mob manage per decade.

Maybe the variety they display makes it harder to pin them down (let's face it Sonic Youth have been making the same album over and over for nearly 20 years) and some people just like to know what to expect.

Here we have two of my favourite Yo La Tengo songs, and they bear absolutely no resemblance to each other. Could be different bands if you didn't know better.

Yo La Tengo - Mr Tough
Yo La Tengo - Our Way to Fall

Moss Poles

2010-09-14T06:00:00.000Z

In 1987 a new record shop opened in Derby called BPM owned by the chap who had previously run R.E.Cords on Sadler Gate (the first record shop I ever went in and bizarrely now the unit in which the re-activated BPM Records lives). As part of the opening special offer there seemed to be a huge rack of indie records at insanely cheap prices.

A lot of these were by bands that we'd never heard of and because we were all skint but desperate to hear new music we'd quite often just take a punt on the one with the best sleeve.

My sister bought the single "One Summer" by The Moss Poles and it was an immediate indiepop classic. Fast buzz-saw guitars, twee harmonies and a catchy chorus. It sounds quite dated now but it's still a great pop song.

BPM also had the follow-up single ("Underground") and then the album ("Shorn") for cheap but neither were up to the standard of this

Moss Poles - One Summer

Morphine

2010-09-13T06:00:00.000Z

Further fall-out from the Music Avalanche, this time Morphine who I think we must have seen on Later With Jools Holland playing their low jazz-rock music with the unusual sax/bass/drums line-up.

Sax in rock can be a bit hit-and-miss in my opinion but this lot nailed it, and Cure For Pain is a great song.

I also loved those pale-green Rykodisc CD jewel cases..aaah why should that have even mattered? I don't know. It just did.

Morphine - Cure For Pain

Band Of Holy Joy

2010-09-12T06:00:00.004Z

Over the years I seem to have made an accidental habit of ending up at gigs I had no interest in attending, and whilst most of these have been miserable affairs (yes I'm talking about you Fields Of The Nephilim) every now and again I have ended up thoroughly enjoying myself.

The Band Of Holy Joy was one such occasion, dragged along by someone (probably Woody) because there was literally nothing better to do - I had heard a couple of their singles and not been hugely impressed, but live they totally blew me away.

Often lazily described as an English Pogues, they did indeed play more traditional folk instruments but they were a lot more esoteric in their song-writing. It was a far cry from the indie guitar bands of the time, in fact probably the only band I saw at The Duchess Of York that didn't have a guitar player

The singer was an intense young chap and the last song they played was delivered with such emotion that it was hard not to love it.

I'd always assumed this was about Marilyn Monroe but is apparently about a Monroe impersonator who mirrored her idol so closley that she even died the same way and at the same age. Quite a sad song then. But a good one..

Band Of Holy Joy - Bitten Lips

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

2010-09-11T06:00:00.001Z

Here's a lovely bit of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan especially for the Pastor Terry Jones and his misguided followers (all 50 of them) in Gainesville, Florida.

Let's all just love each other yeah?

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan - Mustt Mustt

Zumpano

2010-09-10T06:00:00.001Z

Another one of those records that dates back to the Music Avalanche - I don't actually remember why I bought the Zumpano album "Look What The Rookie Did", as I'm pretty sure I'd not heard them. So a blind (or should that be deaf?) purchase with only the Sup Pop label as any promise of quality, meaning I was expecting something heavy and thus disappointed.

It quickly grew on me though, a sort of baroque pop album not a million miles from Ben Folds. This record has some serious bounce. They did one more album and then split up.

I didn't realise until recently that the singer was AC Newman from The New Pornographers, but I maintain that this album is better than any of those from the Pitchfork Pant-Wetter's favourites.

Zumpano - I Dig You
Zumpano - Rosecrans Boulevard

Breed

2010-09-09T06:00:00.000Z

Yet another darkly brooding guitar band with a deep-voiced front man. Is this getting boring yet?

Breed were constantly raved about by John Peel and they recorded more sessions than most for his program, yet they never seemed to be quite as successful as they could have been - or indeed SHOULD have been.

Their second album "Violent Sentimental" is amazing and I recently traded in my tattered vinyl copy for a CD issue (I didn't even know it had been released on CD) via the magic of ebay

The singer Simon still seems to be doing stuff and one of the others (probably Ken..) was later in Placebo.

I also just noticed that I already plugged them once in an earlier post about Barbel but I have no memory of ever being aware that he was in Barbel - what is happening to me? Was he in Barbel? Who knows (or indeed cares)

Listen and enjoy this beauty..

Breed - Faithless, Broke and Powerless

Dumb

2010-09-08T06:00:00.001Z

I saw Dub Sex play a few times back in the day and they were always excellent and very intense. The singer was probably the first person I saw wearing jogging bottoms on stage.

"Swerve" was arguably their finest hour (although the follow-up "Time Of Life" is also really good) and to this day I still can't work out what he's singing at the start (please add your guess in the comments)

I only became aware of their second incarnation as Dumb some years after the fact, and they have an annoyingly un-Google-able name, so
most of what I know comes from this Myspace.

I've managed to track down a couple of 7" singles and one album but I'm still missing the "Thirsty" album.

They didn't stray too far from the original Dub Sex vibe but this single was particularly upbeat and should have been much more widely heard I reckon.

This one is also dedicated to everyones favourite scouser Wayne Rooney. He seems such an intelligent lad as well..

Dumb - Always Liverpool

Mark Lanegan

2010-09-07T06:00:00.000Z

1994 was a particularly bountiful year for me when it came to buying records, due in no small part to the fact I was sharing a flat with the manager of the local independent record shop Way Ahead (now the boss off successful folk-tastic record label Reveal Records)

It wasn't purely his commercial instincts encouraging me to buy stuff (and to be fair he did *give* me quite a lot of freebies) but we were two young blokes who loved our music, and I was like a child in a sweet shop for the most part.

One of the records that always takes me back to that flat is the solo album by Mark Lanegan of Screaming Trees

I already owned a copy of "Buzz Factory" by Screaming Trees (on blue vinyl I think it was), which was an impulse buy on the wave of grunge that swept the nation a couple of years previously, and to be perfectly honest I didn't much like it and I sold it years ago. It ticked all the right boxes, minimalist sleeve, produced by Jack Endino, Seattle band, on SST but sadly it did nothing for me (as was the case with pretty much every grunge band outside of Nirvana and Mudhoney)

So I wasn't expecting big things from his solo album but was chuffed to find that it was actually amazing. I dug it out last week and can confirm that it stands up as still a great record today.

Mark Lanegan - House a Home

Will probably post a few more things from that golden summer of music avalanche over the next few weeks (Stina Nordenstam and Morphine spring to mind)

James Taylor Quartet

2010-09-06T14:14:00.000Z

The James Taylor Quartet started out doing covers of 1960's film themes, and their second album "The Money Spyder" was the soundtrack to an imaginary film (yes...it's up there with Kiss "Music From The Elder").

Later on they went a bit acid jazz, which I wasn't so keen on, but by all accounts they are still going and have reverted back to their original style. I should check out the new stuff and stop living in the past shouldn't I?

I also have a distant memory (circa 1989) of frugging my socks off at a club in Bradford called "Dig That Hammond!" that played this sort of stuff all night. It was down some steps and in a very sweaty basement. No further details exist at this point in time, but if you can't tap your toes to this tune then you don't deserve toes.

James Taylor Quartet - One Way Street

This also reminds me that I need to blog something by The Prisoners at some point soon..

Peel Session Week #7: - Ivor Cutler 15th June 1987

2010-09-05T06:00:00.000Z

Hard to belive it's well over 4 years since Ivor Cutler passed away

This session was the first time I ever heard him and after the initial confusion I quickly came to realise I was listening to a genius.

All of the stories told in this session are superb and featured in the book Fremsley but it's Cutler's delivery that really makes them come alive. I remember my sister coming into my room wondering why on earth I had an ageing Scottish man with me. It didn't take long before she was hooked too.

Ivor Cutler - Peel Session 15th June 1987

01 The Shapely Balloon
02 The Clever Night Doctor
03 The Aggressive Onion-Vendor
04 Me And My Kid Brother
05 The Perambulating Scottish Collander
06 A Wag At The Flicks

Peel Session Week #6: The Shamen - 12th April 1988

2010-09-04T06:00:00.000Z

In retrospect The Shamen are possibly the unhippest thing I could post. Images of Mr C bobbing around off his tits on e's and whizz come to mind, but back in 1988 (ie pre-ecstasy culture) I thought they were a great band.

This session includes my favourite single "Knature Of A Girl" which was typical of the industrial psychedelic pop they peddled in the early days.

"War Prayer" and "Misinformation" are two sample-heavy tracks that featured on the album "In Gorbachev We Trust" - the record which heavily sign-posted their imminent change of direction

The 3rd track "Nothing" is otherwise unreleased as far as I can tell

The Shamen - Peel Session 12th April 1988

01 Knature Of A Girl
02 War Prayer
03 Nothing
04 Misinformation

Peel Session Week #5: Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet 26th June 1993

2010-09-03T06:00:00.009Z

I was always going to like a band with a name like Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet and this session highlights their guitar instrumental chops quite nicely.

I was never sure whether the Shadowy bit was a reference to The Shadows, because they have that Hank Marvin twang which bears more than a passing resemblance at times.

The last track is a corker - essentially being a medley of brief riff-snippets (riffets?) from cliched encore songs. Can you spot them all?

Shadowy Men On A Shadowy Planet - Peel Session 26th June 1993

01 Telepathetic
02 They Used To Pay Him To Watch The Trains
03 The Jehrny
04 16 Encores

Peel Session Week #4: Scratch Perverts 26th January 1999

2010-09-02T06:00:00.004Z

This session from Scratch Perverts caught me by surpise as I didn't expect it to be that interesting. How wrong I was. A relentless 30 minute lesson in A+ scratching. Astonishing stuff.

Scratch Perverts - Peel Session 26th Jan 1999

Peel Session Week #3: Foreheads In A Fishtank - 24th August 1991

2010-09-01T06:00:00.005Z

I thought this session from Foreheads In A Fishtank was a killer when I first taped it and promptly bought the Happy Shopper single (which reached Number 21 in the 1991 Festive Fifty). As Peel quite rightly pointed out, the singer "managed to sound like Noddy Holder & Morrissey within the same song" and the style of music was totally at odds to the burgeoning grunge movement that was taking shape.

The album "Buttocks" was a bit of a disappointment and I don't think they reached these heights again (although they did release a completely bizarre cover version of Haircut 100's "Favourite Shirts" as a single a few years later that was quite entertaining)

Foreheads In A Fishtank - Peel Session 24th August 1991

01 Sylvester's Mother
02 British Telecom
03 Happy Shopper
04 Sex And Drugs And..

Peel Session Week #2: The Hepburns - 17th April 1989

2010-08-31T06:00:00.005Z

Another session that I taped without knowing anything about the band, but The Hepburns had a good name (not to be confused with the later all-girl pop-rock monstrosity Hepburn) so I took a punt.

Excellent it was too, but their records seemed devlishly hard to find - in fact I don’t think any of these session tracks were ever officially released apart from "Where You Belong" which turned up on a fanzine flexi.

The band hold a special place in my heart because on my first day at University in Leeds I discovered Jumbo Records and was astounded to find one their records ("Electrified 12") which I snapped up and took back to my room. I listened to it non-stop and even now I can smell Jasmine joss sticks when I hear those songs. Aaah! Isn't it amazing the things a simple piece of music can do?

The band seemed to have been rejuvenated at the turn of the century and have released quite a lot of stuff since then - check it all out here

The Hepburns - Peel Session 17th April 1989

01 Believe Me
02 Tonight The World Of Entertainment
03 Where You Belong
04 You Must Have Had It All

Peel Session Week #1: Benny Profane - 6th June 1988

2010-08-30T06:00:00.010Z

Benny Profane were a band that I saw play many times in the late eighties/early nineties and they never failed to impress. I remember one particularly strange gig seeing them support Echo & The Bunnymen (the debut gig of the Mac-less Echoes Of The Bunnymen line-up) in Bootle, surrounded by a who's who of the Liverpool music scene. I thought Benny Profane stole the show that night as they played a storming set with the air of a band who knew they had nothing to lose

This Peel Session came just after I first saw the video for their single "Rob A Bank" on the late night ITV indie music program (the name of which escapes me but was consistently excellent). The single was scheduled to come out on Ediesta Records but disappeared, along with so many other releases when the Red Rhino distribution network collapsed.

The band then released two albums in quick succession (both featured new versions of two tracks each from this session) and boom..split up.

I love all four songs on this session but Dave Jackson's lyrics on track 4 slay me every time..a true unsung indie hero

When he grabbed the microphone
He knocked his front teeth right out
And that was the last time
He sang without dentures

Benny Profane - Peel Session 6th April 1988

01 Beam Me Up
02 Everything
03 Rob A Bank
04 Quickdraw McGraw Meets Dead-Eye Dick

Guns 'n Fucking Roses

2010-08-29T06:00:00.020Z

No mp3 today as I'm taking the eldest to Leeds Festival to see his heroes Guns 'N Roses, which of course I won't enjoy in the slightest..hem hem..

So instead I'll pay homage with a link to one of my favourite cheesy rock videos of ALL TIME.

In all seriousness I love this video so much, all 9 minutes of it and you have to really watch it all a few times to appreciate each and every nuance. Every viewing brings something new to the experience. Beneath the video are my revision notes that will help you pass your GCSE in Hair Metal Video..

00:01 So here we have Axl going to bed (alone) because he's got a headache. Stubs out his fag & chugs a couple of nurofen. Shh! Axl tired!

00:20 Axl begins to dream that he is doing a special gig with an orchestra. Of course this would never happen because he's not a pussy.

00:40 Or is he REALLY alone in a tiny empty wooden church with just a baby grand piano for company? Lay off the cheese before bed Axl!

01:00 Oh no! The tiny wooden church has disintegrated!

01:20 Ooh dear it IS a bad dream. Even jesus is crying..Axl tosses anxiously

01:40 Now it's a proper big church and is that Axl's bride or a slutty kissogram walking down the aisle?

02:20 Axl is dreaming about marrying a woman a good foot taller than him

02:40 Now they're all smoking tabs in the backroom of The Rainbow. That would be totally illegal today of course!

02:50 Axl has a little snog

03:05 Meanwhile back in the big church..oh shit! Slash has only gone and lost the ring!

03:10 Fear not - Duff McKagan has a spare one on his be-gloved left pinky. Phew!

03:25 Axl performs a wedding faux-pas by over-shadowing the bride's ring with his own enormous and flamboyant eagle claw ring. Oops!

03:30 "You may kiss the bride" Axl has a MASSIVE snog. I found it more than a little innapproriate as you can clearly see him aggressively tongueing her. Please..there are children watching!

03:40 Now his bit is done Slash decides he's had enough and stomps off down the aisle in a moody sulk

04:00 But suddenly 3 absolute miracles happen! Slash loses his hat, Slash gains a guitar and the big church shrinks to the size of a tiny shed in the middle of the desert!

04:05 Oh hang on miracle #4 Slash has also lost his shirt!

04:10 Miracle #5 Slash is now smoking a cigarette that not only appeared from nowhere but how did he light it in that wind without burning his hair?

04:25 Massively emotional guitar solo. But where is your amp Slash? No amps in the desert Slash!

05:00 The solo is still going on and no one has dared tell Slash he's not plugged in yet

05:05 Meanwhile back at the real church, Axl and his slutty bride get pelted with confetti. They like it!

05:30 Slash is STILL going

05:40 Is that Axl we see in the darkness leaving a gun shop? What have you got planned Axl you naughty boy!

06:00 Here we are now at the reception and Mr & Mrs Axl have changed. She now looks like she's going to a funeral. Axl looks like..actually fuck knows what Axl thinks he looks like. A flouncy bluecoat at Butlins maybe?

06:10 They cut the cake and Axl makes her lick the knife. Lick it! Health and Safty fail.

06:20 The lads have a toast to Axl and his new wife. Slash looks a bit miffed. He's still not forgotten about the futile solo in the desert incident.

06:45 Everyone's having a lovely time (excpet Slash) but..bloody typical - it's started raining! Like in that song November Rain geddit? Who gets married in November? It always rains in November. Quick hide under the tables.

07:00 My 100% favourite bit of the whole video - for absolutely NO REASON Izzy Stradlin jumps into the wedding cake.

07:10 What now Axl's wife is DEAD? Nooooo!

07:15 Slash checks that he's definitely plugged in this time and decides to show Axl whose boss by playing the next solo stood on top of Axl's grand piano.

07:20 Hmm - suspiciously less people at Mrs Axl's funeral than were at her wedding. Axl is probably meant to look like he's crying but he just looks like he's got a sweaty face.

07:22 Close-up of the coffin and she is half-obscured by a mirror - suggesting something particularly unpleasant must have happened to the left side of her head. What did you do to her Axl you monster!

07:50 Slash is still stood on that piano

08:10 Sombre burial sequence

08:22 Oh bloody bollocks! It's only started raining AGAIN. People have umbrellas this time.

08:30 I love this bit - Axl is stroking his piano to an orgasmic frenzy. Two-handed technique..nice

08:35 Someone has clearly just said "sod this..pub anyone?"

08:40 Axl wakes from his dream (this time he really is sweaty) as his wife throws the bouquet. The petals turn from white to red and it lands on her coffin

09:00 The cold november rain washes the red dye from the petals and Axl cries. They weren't even real red flowers!

09:05 The end. What can it all mean?

=============

To get slightly back on topic after this little diversion, next week will be officially Peel Session week, where I'll bring you seven of my favourite (unreleased) John Peel Sessions. Watch this space

Best Gig I Ever Done See #6 - Bettie Serveert

2010-08-28T06:00:00.000Z

Bettie Serveert
Derby Wherehouse November 1992

It's been quite a while since I added to the Best Gigs I Ever Done See list, suggesting that I've probably not seen that many good gigs. On the contrary, I just have a terrible memory. In fact one of the reasons I do this blog is because I suspect one day I won't even remember my own name.

My ailing memory embarasses me already because I can't remember the specific details of this particular gig. I had it in my head that
Bettie Serveert supported Buffalo Tom on this occasion, but some rudimentary googling shows that gig must have been the following year, so the best I can come up with is that they must have been supporting Belly?

That would make sense as they had just released their album "Palomine" on the short-lived 4AD off-shoot label Guernica and Belly were 4AD darlings of the UK music press at the time.

This was one of those special gigs where everyone in the audience was stunned by how good the previously unknown support band was. When they ambled on stage they couldn't have looked more Dutch - terrible hair, terrible clothes, terribly unfashionable guitars (it was almost unthinkable in 1992 that an indie band should have a Gibson Les Paul not a Fender Jaguar) and the singer wasn't even that good-looking. Yet they played their hearts out and you could see people in the crowd turning to each other exchanging nods of appreciation as they gradually won everyone over.

There was a real rush on their album at Way Ahead Records the next day and although there isn't a bad track on there this is still my favourite song of theirs.

Bettie Serveert - Brain Tag

The Cygnet Ring

2010-08-27T06:00:00.001Z

I absolutely loved this song by The Cygnet Ring when it came out and fully expected it to be a huge hit. The label were flogging copies cheap in the major chain record stores and it was getting plenty of radio play, but the chart smash I predicted never materialised. I was actively mocked by at least one friend for thinking this was a great pop song but I still stand by it today. The single version at least..

Going back to my earlier post about my penchant for 12" remixes, there was a textbook example of an extended remix gone bad for this single.

The Cygnet Ring - Love Crime [12'' Extended Mix]

It seems like they ripped the heart out of the song and replaced it with a hip and trendy baggy beat. It's not that bad (you'd have to be going some to ruin a tune like this) but it just seemed a bit half-arsed. According to the credits this was the early work of Guy Fixsen who worked with almost every shoe-gazing band of note and went on to be part of the excellent Laika so can be forgiven for this remix folly.

NB - yes I know I've labelled this post as 80's 12" Mixes and this came out in the early 90's but it's all the same to me.

Duglas T. Stewart

2010-08-26T06:00:00.000Z

I was only ever a casual fan of BMX Bandits, but when a friend played me singer, Duglas Stewart's solo album "Frankenstein" in 1997 it struck a chord that endeared it to me forever.

Although it's largely made up of cover versions, the concept of the album is based around the break-up with the mother of his child and the conflicts, self-doubt and general feelings of worthlessness that single fathers can feel. Like I say, it struck a chord.

Opening with a cover of Benmont Tench's "Unbreakable Heart" (one of the saddest songs ever - and one I might blog at a later date. Maybe when I get round to Country & Western Week), the emotional tone is set from the out.

But it's Duglas' own song "Stupid" that really forms the centrepiece of the album. I guess it has a similar kind of feel to Sinatra's "I Would Be In Love Anyway" as mentioned in my Watertown blog entry. That feeling that no matter how wrong things have gone, there is still a part of you that would do it all again - just to have the good times. How can you regret any relationship that bears a child without letting down that child?

Duglas Stewart - Stupid

The wikipedia page for Duglas currently says that he lives in Glasgow with his daughter, so I hope that means it all worked out for him.

Eggs

2010-08-25T06:00:00.002Z

Another nostalgic moment - this time the early summer of 1994. I was on a fortnight-long UNIX course in Darley Dale and travelling every day on the Derby to Matlock train through the beautiful Derbyshire countryside. I'd just picked up a cassette copy of the new album by a band called Eggs so that I could listen to something new on the old tape Walkman and it soundtracked my journey brilliantly.

By coincidence, Darley Dale is also the village where both my Parents grew up and my Grandparents still lived there. My Grandad was pretty poorly and in the Whitworth Hospital at the time which was right opposite the offices where I was doing the course, so I had a routine going. Train-Eggs-Course-Hospital at lunchtime-Course-Train-Eggs. There's not been enough trombone players in the indie genre..Eggs, Bridewell Taxis..any more?

I'm sure I must have listened to more than just this one album but I don't remember anything else. My Grandad died later that summer, and I was glad to have spent a bit of time with him when I did, cos he was a great bloke (aren't most Grandads?). I hope to be one too some day.

So this is also for my son Evan who was born 3 months ago.

Eggs - Evanston, Il

Kevin Coyne

2010-08-24T06:00:00.000Z

Ask me who the greatest singer was to ever come out of Derby and without a doubt my answer would be Kevin Coyne. An amazing blues singer but his talent went far and beyond that. Much loved by John Peel, he still seemed to languish in relative obscurity right up until his death a few years back. Even then there didn't seem to be quite the posthumous wave of interest that seems to wash over most artists when they pass away. I still find it hard to believe that we were born in the same city and grew up walking the same streets.

My favourite Coyne song by far was later covered by Bonnie Prince Billy on an obscure Spanish label (not a bad version but not a patch on the original) and is one of the most beautifully optimistic lyrics ever. It never fails to cheer me up.

Said, now smile everybody, don't you see it's gone
I'm surrounded by good spirits day and night time long
And when I walk, I walk like I've just been born
All because the lord let the sun shine down on me

Kevin Coyne - Sun Shines Down on Me

Another favourite, this one is much more obscure being self-released in 1984, lost amidst the mid-eighties musical landscape where singing cryptic songs about cycling were never going to hit the spot.

Kevin Coyne - Cycling

Much more Coyne to download on this dedicated blog offering bootlegs and more obscurities.

Warfare

2010-08-23T06:00:00.000Z

Yesterday I promised something a bit less tame so here it is.

Warfare were a punk metal band from Newcastle that I must have first heard on Tommy Vance's Friday Rock Show in the early 1980's (did I previously explain my pre-teen flirtation with all things ROCK?).

Frankie Goes To Hollywood were Top Of The Pops and dominated playground conversations with the cool kids, so I instantly took delight in hearing Warfare destroy a Frankie song in such an uncompromising manner. In fact I think I can trace my love affair with cover versions in general back to this one record. I played this very loudly out of my bedroom window for as long as my parents would tolerate. I suggest you do the same.

Warfare - Two Tribes (Metal Noise Mix)

Note that this isn't a remix - the (Metal Noise Mix) tag is probably just a joke aimed at the various different remixes of Two Tribes that Frankie were endlessly churning out at the time.

The b-sides (both originals) were also great hunking slabs of Motorhead-esque metal, as was the first album, but I was surprised to see when I looked them up recently that a Best Of CD came out a few years back Metal Anarchy which didn't include this cover version for some inexplicable reason, despite it being their most widely-known single. Oh and they had a singing drummer.

Joe Henry

2010-08-22T06:00:00.001Z

Sometimes people appear in your life from nowhere, work little miracles and then disappear just as quickly as they arrived. 1999 was one of those years and there are a handful of records which never fail to take me back there. One of the strangest years of my life, where everything felt hopelessly out of focus but progressed towards a sort of crash-zoom right at the end and suddenly everything made sense again.

Erm..where was I? What I'm trying to say is that today's piece of music came from one particular little miracle worker that one particular year.

I'd never even heard of Joe Henry when I received a copy of "Fuse" as a gift (it's still the only album of his I know but looking at his CV the follow-up "Scar" seems to be worth a punt. Featuring Marc Ribot and Ornette Coleman you say? How did I miss that!) and he's still as relatively unknown in the UK now as he was back then. So it was one of those records that you go into not really caring too much about whether it's going to be any good or not. It was a present, I've never heard of him, here goes nothing..a nice surprise when it turned out to be great.

Hints of alt.country (before alt.country even existed as a bandwagon to circle?) and rhythms that were just...sexy. No two ways about it. Not in your face sexy, but laid back and relaxed sexy. Plus another deep-voice for me to swoon over. I don't really know what he's singing about half the time either but who cares. Sexy AND mysterious. (I read a description of Joe Henry as Tom Waits without the comedy voice, and I can sort of see what they mean..just)

I was never too sure about the cover though - a slightly camp-looking bloke with a monkey on his shoulder. Flashbacks to Skegness pier in the 1970's maybe?

Joe Henry - Like She Was A Hammer
Joe Henry - Angels

I fully realise that my love of this album may be due to the circumstances in which it appeared in my life - and some may think it is a bit tame, but fear not I will redress the balance tomorrow. Promise.

BUY IT

Al Green

2010-08-21T06:00:00.004Z

So today is my 2nd wedding anniversary and therefore I'm in a romantic mood and feeling very lucky with the way life has panned out.

For a while back there I had myself convinced that I would die alone and that it wasn't going to be anywhere near as cool as Morrissey had promised me when I was 16.

So hooray for me. This post is dedicated to the missus. She has many fantastic and lovely attributes but by far the most important one is that she seems capable of putting up with me. Long may she continue..

We both love a bit of Al Green and our eyes sometimes get a little damp when Let's Stay Together comes on, but that's a bit too obvious to post here. Instead we have three of, what I consider to be, his finest love songs.

First up is L.O.V.E (Love) - a cover of which was the A-side of the first Orange Juice single that I bought, and I didn't hear the original until quite a few years later.
Apparently Al Green was a big fan of the Orange Juice version!

Al Green - L-O-V-E (Love)

Next we have Simply Beautiful - quite possibly one of the most heartfelt vocal deliveries ever. The way he holds it back, like his heart is a balloon full of love and he's letting the air out as slowly as possible..just so he can savour every moment. Stunning.

Al Green - Simply Beautiful

And finally - because I'm incapable of an honest declaration of love without shoe-horning football into the equation, this is a love song to the other great love of my life. Here's to a better season this time around..

Al Green - I'm A Ram

xxxx

Ze Popes

2010-08-20T13:54:00.000Z

Another gem I discovered whilst transferring the batch of 1979 John Peel Show tapes (as mentioned previously).

This time it's a Dutch band called Ze Popes and it got quite a few plays. My immediate reaction was that this could have been a Flight Of The Conchords song.

A totally daft and very literal celebration of the singer's sexy pjyamas, it's one of those songs that really seems to benefit from the fact the lyrics aren't being written in the authors first language. There really isn't much more to say...

Sexy pyjamas
They come out at night
They tickle my tummy
They're making me feel alright

Ze Popes - Sexy Pyjamas

The Perfect Disaster

2010-08-19T06:00:00.003Z

The Perfect Disaster are one of those bands that seemed better known for their position in the great rock family tree than for their recorded output.

Singer Phil Parfitt went on to work with Jason Pierce from Spiritualized whilst bassist Josephine Wiggs joined The Breeders. So generally you would find their singles (usually cheap) at Record Fairs in the "Spacemen 3 and Related" or the "Pixies and Related" sections.

They were a strange band who seemed to operate in two song modes - out-and-out garage rockers and brooding ballads. As a listener I never really got on with the former but I've always been sucker for a deep voice singing a slow song and so I had a good compilation tape of the ones I liked and didn't bother with the fast ones. It was a REALLY good tape.

The three songs provided here represent this quiet side of the band perfectly and are all ripped from vinyl so excuse the crackles.

The Perfect Disaster - TV (Girl On Fire)
The Perfect Disaster - Elusive Dream
The Perfect Disaster - F Song

Oddly a cover version of TV (Girl On Fire) appeared as a bonus track on the reissue of Spacemen 3's "Playing With Fire" as just plain "Girl On Fire" and seems to be mainly Josephine Wiggs playing the cello riff over and over. Very strange.

Ket Kolomper

2010-08-18T06:00:00.002Z

Let's take another trip back in time to Leeds 1990 when the eternal support act seemed to be an odd bunch that went by the name of Ket Kolomper. For a while it seemed like whoever you saw play at The Duchess Of York - they would be first on the bill.

I suspect that most people will remember them purely for the fact that the "bass" player had an instrument that he'd made himself from a cricket bat, a single bass string and a hand-gripped pulley system.

It sounds like a piece of design genius and in a way it almost was. Worn like a guitar, he would pluck the string with a plectrum in his right hand and with the pulley in his left hand he would change the tension in the string to form different notes. I'm surprised it never caught on but it may have had something to do with the fact that, for the most part, it sounded bloody awful.

As far as I know (and let's face it they have a name just MADE for Google) this was their only official appearance on vinyl and luckily for me was the song I liked best from their set. A jolly sing-a-long recounting a drink-drive experience gone wrong.

Ket Kolomper - Morning Occifer

We saw them play a few years later and were disappointed to see that the cricket bat bass was long gone and the singer was quite dismissive of the old gimmick when we asked him about it. Maybe if he'd kept it they could have been huge..(but probably not)

Edward Barton

2010-08-17T06:00:00.011Z

Edward Barton scares me. Pictures of him scare me, his voice scares me and his songs scare me.

Even his Wikipedia Biography scares me a little bit.

Yet scary as I find him, there is something oddly compelling about his songs. This is one of his more instructional numbers, as he teaches you how to be a successful musician. Simon Cowell (who scares me only marginally less) should be taking notes.

Edward Barton - Listen To Edward

If you like that then check out the videos if you're feeling brave (including his bizarre appearance on Wogan as a member of Tears For Fears..)

He apparently has released a new CD recently called And A Panda but I'm not sure if I dare listen to it. Someone tell me if it's any good.

As a bonus - and because I've not mentioned anything Ted Chippington-related for a long while, here is Ted's only marginally unnerving cover version of Barton's "Z-Bend"

Ted Chippington - Z-Bend

Crystal Leigh

2010-08-16T06:00:00.002Z

It's hard to imagine that 12 years ago when we started our DIY record label AAS that we had a specific instruction on the web page that under NO circumstances were bands to send us mp3's via email. Not because we were technophobes but because we were on 56k dial-up modems and it could take up to an hour to download a single music file (which would be doubly annoying when it turned out to be a dreadful Italian soft rock ballad).

So it came to pass that we shared a PO Box with one of our up-and-coming bands Stumble (who evolved into the soon to be global Rock Gods LostAlone) and encouraged any like-minded fiercely-independent bands to send us their demos for consideration.

It didn't take long before the CD's started flooding in, but weirdly at least 90% of them seemed to be from bands/acts that clearly had absolutely no idea who we were or what kind of label we were trying to run.

Mat had a theory that we had made it into some sort of International Record Label Yellow Pages and being called AAS meant we were second in the list (after Aardvark Records presumably) when it came to bands looking for places to send their demos.

Every few weeks the drummer from Therapy? would drop off a big bag of CD's at my house and I would embark on Demo Night. Evetually Demo Night became a prominent fixture in the social calendar, as the opportunity to read excruciating biogs, look at horrific promotional photos, all soundtracked by some quite embarassing music was too good to miss.

Amazingly we did pick up two bands and release their albums via this process* but for me the most memorable highlight remains the glorious Crystal Leigh.

I would normally dispose of each batch of demos by passing them onto Mark & Mat to "enjoy" but Crystal Leigh was special. I kept the CDR and it still warms my heart to this day.

As you can see from the picture, Crystal is a cuddly blonde of a certain age, and the music is pure Europop. The tone of the lyrics suggested that Crystal was very much on-the market (possibly a recent divorcee?) and no stranger to internet dating. This is the killer track and the words are work of a genius as Crystal basically implores her man to send her a mucky email.

Crystal Leigh - E-Me

The other noteable thing about Crystal's demo was that her contact details were through her Manager "Susan Silver". I always assumed that Susan Silver was fictional character and/or Crystal's alter-ego, but if you look up "Susan Silver Management" on Google it tells you that she DOES exist and spent the 1990's managing Soundgarden. She doesn't mention poor Crystal at all - pah!

don't call or ring my mobile phone
just kiss me with your commas
click on me for fantasy
just e-me
dot the i's and cross the t's
fill my life with ecstasy
i'm your format love.com
just e-me

*less amazingly the combined sales of both these albums was very nearly in double figures..but check them out anyway as they are both brilliant.
The Frightened Prisoners Of The Kraken
L. Christian Lundholm

Lloyd Cole

2010-08-15T06:00:00.004Z

One of the great era-defining pop marketing innovations of the 1980's for me is the 12" Mix

Now in the digital age - it's amazing how many of these extended mixes have been forgotten and remain hidden away on a slab of dusty vinyl somewhere. Artistically they usually held very little merit - as the artists themselves were rarely involved and most considered them a vulgar bastardisation of their original art. Which means that when albums get reissued in their deluxe 21st Century editions, the lost 12" mixes sometimes don't get a look in.

But artistic preciousness aside, as a listener I absolutely loved them, and surely that was the point?

This chap has an amazing blog which concentrates almost exclusively on high quality vinyl rips of 80's 12" mixes and is a veritable treasure trove

http://burningthegrounddjpault.wordpress.com

However - be warned there is a LOT of Sheena Easton and Olivia Newton John involved over there so steel yourself.

But I digress - I know that Lloyd Cole is planning a companion volume to the Clearing Out The Ashtrays boxset
http://shop.lloydcole.com/products/cleaning-out-the-ashtrays
that concentrates on the Commotions period, but I bet he doesn't include the 12" mixes of the Easy Pieces singles.

It'd be a real shame as Brand New Friend and Lost Weekend both have great extended versions. Up until a few months back I didn't even know there was an extended version of the "flop" third single Cut Me Down, as I only owned the Double 7" edition, but I picked this up on 12" at a record fair for a couple of quid and lo - there it is!

Lloyd Cole & The Commotions - Cut Me Down (12" extended remix)

It's a text book example. Instruments dropped out on the extended intro, then the main part of the song, followed by a dubby interlude (just put some delay on the drums - that'll do..) and then a longer outro.

Despite the fact it didn't fare too well in the charts, I adore this song and Cole still plays it live in his "Folk Singer" Set (if you've not seen him play live in the past few years then I can't recommend the following CD more. It's excellent)

http://shop.lloydcole.com/products/the-whelan

I had to laugh when I saw him in Buxton last year as he explained that the beauty of doing acoustic versions of the old songs is that he can leave out the crap middle 8 if he sees fit and no one says anything. Hence you could say the version he plays these days is the artistically enhanced shortened mix..

Lloyd Cole - Cut Me Down (Acoustic - Live At The Whelan)

Hopefully I'll post up a few more of my favourite 80's 12" mixes in the future.

Zeke Manyika

2010-08-14T06:00:00.000Z

Unfashionable as it may be to admit it, but I prefer the Polydor-era Orange Juice work to the Postcard-era.

Most likely because I discovered them through Top Of The Pops and Smash Hits in '83/84, and not via John Peel and some badly photocopied fanzine article in their earlier days. By that point they were already trying to live the fizzy-pop over-produced 80's dream and had abandoned the ramshackle lo-fi approach. The turning point, it seemed to me, was the employment of a fantastically funky and talented drummer by the name of Zeke Manyika who seemed to give Edwyn's pop songs a bouncing soulful sheen. (NB I fully intend to dedicate an entire future post to the Flesh Of My Flesh single in all it's majesty)

By the time of the last Orange Juice album, the group had simmered down to just the two of them and it's still my favourite of their records.

The urban myth goes that Edwyn was unceremoniously dropped by Polydor after that album and then mortified to find that they kept Zeke on contract enabling him to go on and release a solo album and a couple more of his singles for the label.

The album Call & Response is very much in the same style as the tracks he contributed to the Rip It Up album, infusing African rhythms and melodies with 80's pop stylings, and the second single Heaven Help Us (Try) is probably the stand-out track. Contrary to the aforesaid myth I guess that Edwyn must have been happy enough with the situation because he illustrated the single sleeve with some excellent pencil sketches.

Posting it here also highlights one of my other aural fetishes - the 80's 12" Mix (but more of that later...)

Zeke Manyika - Heaven Help Us (Try) [ManyanaMegaMix]

Zeke also got dropped by Polydor after this record but returned a few years later with (the superior) Mastercrime album on Mute (and an NME front cover) before disappearing again. One for the "where are they now?" file i suspect.

Eddie Holman

2010-08-13T06:00:00.001Z

Following on from a previous post about Bobby Womack's "Just A Little Bit Salty", this one can go in the pile labelled Daft Soul Songs

I'd not heard this song in 20 years (which in itself is a bit frightening) but it was discovered in my then-girlfriend's parent's record collection. I don't even know why we ended up playing the album as I'm pretty sure neither of us knew who Eddie Holman was (apparently he had a minor hit with a song called "Hey There Lonely Girl") so maybe it was the, frankly ludicrous, front cover showing Eddie in his mac and fedora leaning on a lampost like the king of suave. We were probably just bored.

Eddie's voice was certainly an acquired taste and by far the most impressive track was "Immune To Love"
The first thing that got us was the quality of the lyrics. More Gedge than Gaye or Green

Withdrew the money from our joint bank account
Took the car!
Didn't care if I ate or starved
If that's what love's about...

And then by far the best bit - the howling flatness of the note he (nearly) hits as he concludes:

...Count me ouuuuuut!

Priceless.

Eddie is still singing and available for functions apparently & is also an ordained Baptist Minister
http://www.corporateartists.com/eddie_holman.html

Eddie Holman - Immune To Love

Hot Tea

2010-08-12T06:00:00.002Z

Another song etched in my brain forever, this one will be familiar to anyone who received a compilation tape from me at any point in the early 1990's

My housemate Jim used to do me some legendary compilations back then and he had originally found this song in a pile of his grandad's old tapes. Not knowing who it was by, he had actually listed it as "Hot Tea" by "Some Old Grunters" and that was as much as I knew about it.

Years later I managed to track it down as being from a BBC Radio 2 broadcast of a comedy duo from Norfolk called The Kipper Family, which I admit slightly disappointed me because I'd always imagined it was a genuine example of straight-faced English Folk Plainsong. Sadly it does appear to be purposefully comic.

Still - It's one of those songs that you can't forget once you've heard it (no matter how hard you try) and even now I still sing it (thankfully usually internally) whenever someone walks in the room with a cup of tea for me

The Kipper Family - Bring Us In Hot Tea

Fast 'N Bulbous

2010-08-11T06:00:00.002Z

In a nutshell Fast 'n Bulbous is a US-based jazz septet which performs and arranges the music of Captain Beefheart (as if you couldn't guess that from their name).

Up until now I'd been largely unimpressed by bands that dared to cover the work of Don Van Vliet, and why wouldn't I be? It's so unique that by definition it becomes almost impossible to copy. Imaginary Records released one of their late 80's tribute albums (also coincidentally called Fast 'n Bulbous) and even prestigious names such as Sonic Youth and XTC failed to hit the spot. More recently the Neon Meate Dream tribute achieved what the untrained ear said Beefheart was all along, and made it unlistenable.

Fast 'n Bulbous though, are a completely different kettle of squid. For a start they feature Magic Band guitarist Gary Lucas so they're already at an advantage, but the band itself is the brainchild of alto saxophonist Phillip Johnston whose arrangements pay such attention to detail that it's obvious he truly loves the music he's working with

You can read up on the rest of the band and their background here
http://www.phillipjohnston.com/fnbfrontpage.htm

They have now released two collections of Beefjazz covers and both are excellent. Whilst it's mostly note for note where it counts, the power of the instrumentation takes it way beyond what the original Magic Band achieved. In some ways I imagine that they hit the highs which Van Vliet was trying to get to right from the start. I'd like to think of him sat painting in his trailer by the Pacific Ocean gently nodding along.

Take a listen to Kandy Korn and tell me that the ending isn't immense.

Fast 'N Bulbous - Kandy Korn

Buy the albums
Pork Chop Blue Around The Rind (2005)

Waxed Oop (2009)

The Freshmen

2010-08-10T06:00:00.001Z

It's all been a bit quiet over here for the last few months as Frankosonic Towers has become buried under a mountain of nappies and tiny teeny clothes. Yup I decided 14 years was quite long enough to wait in between children and decidd it was time to unleash my golden seed once more.

This new arrival seemed to coincide with Google's bright idea of canning FTP support for their Blogger tool, so I was left a bit high and dry anyway - as I had no way of uploading new posts to my server.

My initial reaction was to sack Google off as a bad job. The reasoning behind the change was pretty clear (they want to have control over the content that people are creating using their toolset) and I saw friends and blogs disappearing at a rate of knots under Google-sponsored DCMA takedown orders. Yet having done some digging around and weighed up the options, I decided that I'd stick with Google in spite of all this. Maybe a childish act of defiance? The realisation that probably no one reads this anyway? The distinct lack of tunes posted here courtesy of Mr Big from Big Records? Or just the fact that Google's migration tools worked first time (unlike the WordPress install I tried..)? Well - probably a combination of all these things in truth.

So before the big guns take me out, I thought I better make a proper effort at posting regularly rather than once every other blue moon. If all goes according to plan there should be a post a day for at least a week..um..no going back now.

Starting with a very old song (to me) that I only came across last year, whilst working on a project to transfer a huge box of cassettes of old John Peel shows to digital format. I was given a batch from the spring of 1979 and this track was played every week for about a month.

Peel obviously had a soft spot for it, and you can see why as it's annoyingly catchy and I've had it stuck in my head since I first heard it. Quite why it didn't last the distance like a lot of singles he championed during those post-punk years I'm not sure. Or maybe everyone knows it and I'm just hopelessly out of touch? There is a hint of the Ian Dury to it - but I think they were actually from Ireland.

The Freshmen - You've Never Heard Anything Like This

Edwyn Collins Black Session November 1994

2010-02-20T14:15:00.002Z

Another request via the Rip It Up mailing list

This is Edwyn on French radio in 1994 promoting the Gorgeous George. I saw him on this tour and the band were on top form.

Tracklisting:

01 North Of Heaven
02 Subsidence
03 Low Expectations
04 In A Broken Dream
05 The Campaign For Real Rock
06 Make Me Feel Again
07 Out Of This World
08 Gorgeous George
09 Bridge
10 A Girl Like You
11 Don't Shilly Shally

The first 4 tracks are Edwyn solo and then the band join him for the remainder, including a storming version of Orange Juice's "Bridge"

The original version I had seemed like the tape was running slow, so I've pitch-corrected it and it sounds much better now.

Download

Best Of 2009

2009-12-31T15:43:00.010Z

I was planning a list of my favourite albums of the year, as I never normally do that, and there were at least a couple of new records in 2009 that I'm positive I will still love in 2019, 2029 and then from beyond the grave.

However, I started seeing other peoples lists and got a bit disheartened. How can anyone have a list of 20 albums of the year, let alone 50? Maybe I'm just too fussy? I love music but 90% of the new records I hear bore me rigid, so when I do find something I like, I REALLY like it. Who am I to judge, but my suspicions are that the longer the "best of" list - the bigger the twat. ..or at least the bigger the list of people someone is trying to impress.

I dunno. I don't care but I know it's nice to see yourself in an end of year poll, so here goes. Hopefully the bands in question will appreciate it. Let's keep this short. I liked THREE new albums this year..

Acoustic Ladyland - Living With A Tiger

Beyond their jazz beginnings - the addition of the guitar and hooks made this a pop punk jazz revelation to me. I can't quite put into words how great this record is. Play it loud and often.
Listen here
and
Free download

The Mummers - Tale To Tell

Saw them on Jools Holland and loved her voice, the tunes and the orchestral ambitions. The album is beautiful and I can't find anything not to like about it. So why aren't they better known?
Listen here
and

Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous

My favourite of his since the first solo record. Just when I thought he had lost the plot (I started to hear a worrying Big Country influence in the last album), and resigned himself to a novelty failure after his attempt to get the Xmas 2008 number 1, Malcolm came back with a set of his best songs yet. No wonder he is contemplating calling time on the solo career. I think I'd be scared of trying to better this.

Listen here
and
Free download (via Sterogum)

Another list? Some albums that disappointed me

PJ Harvey & John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By
I had high hopes for this but not a patch on Dance At Louse Hall Point - which is probably my favourite Polly Harvey album

The Lemonheads - Varshons
Jesus Evan Dando you can do better than this.

Elvis Costello - Secret Profane & Sugarcane
I make it now 15 years since a decent Costello record

Echo & The Bunnymen - The Fountain
Great single but some of the songs wouldn't have even made it onto Slideling.

Sparklehorse & Danger Mouse - Dark Night Of The Soul
I was genuinely excited by the prospect of this record but it never quite seemed to add up to the sum of its parts.

Bad Lieutenant - Never Cry Another Tear
I reckon if they put some high end bass guitar with a smidgeon of chorus pedal then this might have been a the worst New Order album since the last one. Without that it's the worst Electronic album since the last one.

Morrissey - Years Of Refusal
Morrissey for Celebrity Death Pool 2010?

And finally a special mention for Vic Chesnutt and Rowland S. Howard, who both died this week (which probably accounts for my end-of-year bad mood.)

Both had great albums out this year, which sound even better now they are being assessed posthumously. They shouldn't do, but that's just the way it works isn't it?

Rowland S. Howard - Pop Crimes

One of my favourite guitar players of all time, I didn't even know he was ill, so it was a total shock to me that he had passed away. What he did with The Birthday Party was stunning and I wish bands these days who name-drop them as an influence would take a bit more of his guitar style and a bit less of the tune-avoidance and shouting about vague religious imagery and sex.

It seems apt to end this post with the cover version on the record - a vicious 6½ minute assault on Talk Talk's "Life's What You Make It" - sung like he's really trying to tell us something. Listen up and have a good 2010.

Rowland S. Howard - Life's What You Make It

The Frankosonic Christmas Compilation 2009

2009-12-23T21:38:00.006Z

Isn't Christmas great? Those who know me best know how much I love Christmas..particularly the way it dovetails so neatly and conveniently with my birthday..

So here is my christmas gift to you all - the best festive album in the world ever, containing some of the less frequently heard Yuletide hits

Just over an hour and 15 songs to play on Christmas morning when you're opening the presents. Your Nan will love it.

01 The Kinks - Father Christmas

02 MC Chris - Fuckin' Up My Christmas

03 The Maytals - Happy Christmas

04 The Research - For Christmas I Got Pityriasis Rosea

05 King Missile-Jesus Was Way Cool

06 AC-DC - Mistress for Christmas

07 Edward Schreiber - It's the Most Jesusful Time of the Year

08 Cristina - Things Fall Apart

09 Basement Five - Last White Christmas

10 Ted Chippington - Tesco Christmas

11 The Fall - (We Wish You) A Protein Christmas

12 Run D.M.C. - Christmas In Hollis

13 Ed's Redeeming Qualities - Christmas In Vermont

14 Can - Little Star Of Bethlehem

15 Stina Nordenstam - Soon After Christmas

Download a tidy zip file here

Medalark Eleven

2009-11-16T20:55:00.003Z

One more request - this time as a thank you to the Madchester Rave-On blog which I've been following for a while and has given me hours of nostalgic pleasure, listening to obscure old stuff that I've not heard in nearly 20 years.

Madchester was one of those genres, invented I'm sure by the NME, that was huge for a short time before it quickly out-grew itself and dissolved in a sea of grunge.

What was really funny was watching C86-era bands jump desperatly onto the bandwagon (and there were A LOT of them..Soup Dragons, Primal Scream, The Beloved etc) with some very mixed results.

Glossop's The Bodines had released the jangle-pop classic "Played" back in 1987 and it's still one of my favourite albums of all-time. They had a particularly ill-fated attempt at "going baggy" - probably a year too late, on Creation Records under the guise of Medalark Eleven.

They released a couple of singles and an album (some of the better tracks were re-worked from The Bodines era) but suffered nothing by the way of popularity.

Their last single is here - see what you think. It hasn't aged too well but they still managed to retain a lot of their jangly charm. Pece wanted to hear it.

Medalark Eleven - Smoke EP (1993)

Tracks:
1) Smoke (taken from the album "Shaped Up, Shipped Out")
2) Big Sharp Knife (Alternate Mix to the album version)
3) Smoked (Dad's Army Remix)

John Lurie

2009-08-18T15:07:00.004Z

Having the new Acoustic Ladyland album on repeat (punk-jazz album of the year so far?) has reminded me of my very great affection for the work of John Lurie and I realised that I've been meaning to post something on here since the very beginning of time itself.

My first visit to Derby's (now defunct) art house cinema was circa 1986/87 to see Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise. Not that I knew the first thing about it, I was told by my friend John Pyle that we should go because it was meant to be good and there might be girls there who would be impressed by our apparent intellect.

I don't think there were girls but it was great (one of those US indie films where nothing much happens..in monochrome..for ninety minutes) and not only did Lurie play the leading man, but he also scored the haunting string quartet soundtrack.

I picked up a copy of the soundtrack CD in Way Ahead a couple of years later and thus my love affair with Lurie's music officially began.

John Lurie - A Woman Can Take You To Another Universe; Sometimes She Just Leaves You There (from the Stranger Than Paradise soundtrack)

Although that first CD was mainly strings, there was a second piece on the end of the CD called "The Resurrection Of Albert Ayler" which, as you'd imagine, was a more honking jazz-based concoction.

From there I picked up a few more of his soundtracks and also delved into his earlier work with the Lounge Lizards (the original punk jazz group).

The Lounge Lizards - Big Heart (from the LP Big Heart - Live In Tokyo)

Of his film work, the score to "Mystery Train" is a particular favourite, it also veers from the jazz format (this time towards a sort of desolate closing-time minor key blues) and includes some choice tracks from other artists too.

John Lurie - Tuesday Night In Memphis (from the Mystery Train soundtrack)

Lurie's profile seemed to peak in the early 1990's with his own TV Show, the brilliant "Fishing With John" a sort of travelog, celebrity fishing documentary series where John travelled the globe..erm...fishing with people like Dennis Hopper and Tom Waits. Definitely pick up a copy on DVD should you come across one. From there he continued to perform and release records with the Lounge Lizards and most notably provided the soundtrack to the mainstream John Travolta flick Get Shorty in 1995.

John Lurie - Nose Punch (from the Get Shorty soundtrack)

His last original music project was the spoof blues album "The Legendary Marvin Pontiac". Not my favourite by a long stretch but it did raise a smile to see it being taken seriously by some areas of the media, apparently unaware that Marvin Pontiac was a fictional creation.

And then it all went quiet on the music front. I knew from Lurie's own website that he was doing a lot more painting (see it here) but it wasn't until I started researching stuff for this blog that I discovered two things

1) His painting "Bear Surprise" (see above) is at the centre of some bizarre Russian-speaking viral internet phenomenon called "Preved" which I can't even begin to explain. Luckily this page does it for me.

2) He has effectively retired from music due to ill health (Advanced Lyme Disease). The saddest part of the story is that he says even if his health permitted him he would be unlikely to consider making music again due to a life-time of bad experiences with the business side of things that I'm sure plenty of people can sympathise with. I suspect that when his memoir "What Do You Know About Music, You're Not a Lawyer" is eventually published, it will be a fascinating read.

There is an excellent (reasonably recent) two part interview here and here, which is essential reading if you've got this far.

I'll leave the last word to Mr Lurie himself. I think there is a case for this being written into some people's record contracts...

To make it make any sense the music has to be breath taking. It doesn't make sense otherwise. The world needs so much, but the last thing it needs is another record or concert, unless it is stunning and moving.

Head! - Tiger, Tiger

2009-08-16T10:48:00.005Z

This is a song I've known since the 1995 version by Paul Quinn & The Nectarine No. 9 but I didn't even know who the original was performed by until recently.

Head! were one of those late 80's bands that passed me by completely. A non-descript name, not championed by Peel, not even an *Evening Session* band..but weirdly they were signed to Virgin so the one place you DID see their records was in the racks. Unsold at a guess.

The sleeve was certainly very familiar to me, and even now I picked up a copy of their "Tales Of Ordinary Madness" for a couple of quid from GEMM - specifically to hear the original version. The rest of the album is in a similar vein with a couple of the songs verging on the plain daft, but this is definitely the best track by a long way.

Head! - Tiger, Tiger

PS
The Paul Quinn & The Nectarine No. 9 version can be heard over at The Vinyl Villain

Close Lobsters Peel Session

2009-08-13T16:26:00.007Z

I used to have this Peel Session on cassette - recorded one evening in 1988 when the reception was particularly bad (at the time my parents lived next door to a morse-code hobbyist who had some sort of Jodrell Bank going on in his garden that used to mess with my stereo in a big way), and it's upset me for 20 years that I never had a decent copy of it.

Forever linked with the C86 movement their debut album "Foxheads Stalk This Land" was a fine collection of songs but suffered from some failry horrendous 80's production values - particularly the drums.

This session featured three songs from the follow-up EP - "What Is There To Smile About" (probably my favourite Lobsters record) and a cover of "Mirror Breaks" by The Mob (about whom I know nothing but they have a Wikipedia page if you're interested.)

I was happy to see that 6music were re-broadcasting the session in its entirety last week so I dutifully grabbed the audio and here it is:

Close Lobsters - John Peel Session BBC Radio 1 (4th Jan 1988)

Session Details here

The following year they released their final album "Headache Rhetoric" and we saw them play a fantastic typically shambolic gig at Trent Polytechic. Talking to the band afterwards it was clear that they were all absolutely pissed beyond words and having a great time. They remain heroes in my house.

Bobby Womack

2009-07-20T20:26:00.003Z

Sometimes when you see an artist you really love mention a song in an interview, you can't help but want to go straight out and find a copy. Back in the day this was obviously a real treasure hunt, but now it's little more than a couple of minutes tickling Lord Google and gently rubbing Lady Soulseek's milky white feet...nowhere near as much fun but when the song at the end of the digital rainbow is as nuts as this then it still makes it just as worthwhile.

I don't know any more about Bobby Womack than that which you can read at Wikipedia. Lots of typical music biz weirdness...he married Sam Cooke's widow 3 months after he died, on the premise that he was worried she might top herself(yeah right we've ALL used that one..), and then his younger brother married Sam Cooke's daughter. Keeping it in the family and all that.

So the song in question dates from 1976, when Bobby was not generally thought to be at the top of his game, but initially the title intrigued me - "Just A Little Bit Salty".

If I wondered what it was about then...well I'm still not entirely sure but despite my confusion it definitely sounds like good advice, and probably one of those lyrics you can interpret at will, just to fit the metaphor you're searching for. I'd be interested to hear what other people make of it..

Itt starts out brilliantly with an apology, Bobby basically admitting that they knocked this one off at the end of a recording session. A brave intro and one that makes it even more poignant.

Bobby Womack - Just A Little Bit Salty

"Things got to get just a little bit salty to let you know what's going down..."

I hear you Bobby...

The BNP Can Suck My Fat One

2009-06-12T15:29:00.007Z

Strange times in the wake of last week's elections. I never thought I'd see far-right parties winning seats in my lifetime, and that xenophobia was the hallmark of my grandparents generation.

People talk about the 1970's as being the decade of casual racism (Alf Garnett, Black & White Minstrels, It Ain't Half Hot Mum & Mind Your Language - can anyone look back at those without feeling a twinge of embarassment?) and I remembered listening to one of my parents records when I was a little kid...

On the face of it - a story about a lady complaining to her Indian Doctor that she couldn't work out why her heart was fluttering and her pulse was racing. Of course it turns out that her secret love for the Doctor in question is the CAUSE of her heart problems...beautiful and funny. Except I didn't realise at the time that the Doctor wasn't really Indian...the ten year old me just thought it was a touching story of inter-racial love. And CHRIST Sophia Loren sounded sexy...

Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren - Goodness Gracious Me

Then bizarrely another record that I thought was about inter-racial love actually wasn't. I thought he was in love with a "little white girl" - turns out that he was singing "Little White Dove" and she was just from another tribe, so I suppose I wasn't a million miles away.

Did I really grow up in such a cauldron of multi-culturalism and tolerance? Maybe I did..I certainly never understood why my Grandma would grip her handbag like vice whenever she saw anyone even vaguely afro-carribbean in the street (which wasn't often in Matlock)

Anyway this one was a favourite of my Dad's Running Bear by Johnny Preston. I absolutely loved it - although I don't think I ever quite got the whole death pact thing at the end. I probably imagined that when he sang "Now they'll always be together.." that they swam off into the sunset. My favourite bit though was always the tempo-changes on the chorus that still see me bobbing my head 30 years later..

Johnny Preston - Running Bear

So yeah - let's just embrace our differences and love each other because...

Guest Post

2009-06-10T09:12:00.003Z

My long-promised guest posting of the Bourgie Bourgie Peel Session on The Vinyl Villain blog is finally upon us

The Vinyl Villain

Please check it out and bookmark Jim's blog if you haven't already as it's always top notch

I've a few more new posts in the pipeline here too, so watch this space

The Fall - Masquerade remixes

2009-03-16T19:54:00.004Z

I swore I'd never be a Fall completist - if only for the sake of my bank balance, but it kind of happened by stealth. One day I was happy with just the studio albums and then the next day, the Postman called, and I found myself buried under a pile of "Live From The Vaults" live CDs Volumes 1 through to whoops there goes my overdraft.

Yet despite this manic obsession with the world's greatest ever band (really) this was one record I'd never heard until today. Hidden away on the 10" vinyl edition of the Masquerade single from 1998 were two obscure remixes, unavailable elsewhere.

I'd be surprised if any serious Fall fan listed Levitate as their favourite album by the band, but Masquerade was certainly the stand-out track for me and as it looks like the one album that ISN'T going to get re-issued any time soon (complete with this sort of contemporary ephemera) I splashed out on the record and here are the results.

If nothing else, 10" vinyl is ALWAYS cool, but these are actually pretty good...in a late 90's kind of way. Whilst the original album version of Masquerade is hardly lacking in electronica (certainly a million miles from the garage punk that MES deals almost exclusively in at the moment) these mixes just pile on the beats. The Mr Natural Mix in particular has a great out of tune slap bass riff running all the way through it that serves to irritate and amuse.

There's not much info as to who the remixes were done by but they were recorded at Edwyn Collin's West Heath studio in London and Pete "The Hit Man (and her)" Waterman's PWL studio in Manchester. I'm sure someone can correct me.

The Fall - Masquerade (Mr Natural Mix)
The Fall - Masquerade (PWL Mix)

As ever, enjoy.

Bourgie Bourgie

2009-03-11T21:04:00.007Z

It's a while off yet, but I've got a guest spot coming up on The Vinyl Villain blog, currently scheduled for Sunday June 7th where I'll be liberating a rare and seldom heard John Peel session from Bourgie Bourgie.

Seems like Paul Quinn and Bourgie Bourgie get blanket coverage in the blogs I frequent and quite right too! As a teaser, here is the one Bourgie Bourgie track that I've never seen bloggerised.

Featured on the NME's "Department Of Enjoyment" cassette in 1984 (more widely known for the rare Smiths live version of "Girl Afraid") this is their somewhat unexpected cover of the blues standard "Little Red Rooster". Not a patch on their two sublime singles but with a voice like his, this proves that Quinn could make anything sound good..

Bourgie Bourgie - Little Red Rooster

Nico 1974 Peel Session

2009-02-25T21:08:00.004Z

I seem to only do requests these days, and here's another. The first Nico Peel Session was released on Strange Fruit in the late 1980's and was the first time I heard any of her solo stuff. Astonishingly dark with wheezing harmonium and elongated vowels. I probably heard the word "teutonic" for the first time when I saw it reviewed. Or maybe that was a Michael Schenker Group review in Kerrang circa 1984?

Her second session was never released, so here it is. I remember reading on Henry Rollins blog that he wanted to hear a copy so I emailed him but he never replied. I guess he was probably busy lifting weights or frowning.

Three of the tracks came from the 1974 album "The End" but are just performed by just Nico, none of the Eno / Cale mucking about over the top. The 9 minute version of The Doors song is a masterclass in bleakness.

This is for Starman015

1. We've Got The Gold
2. Janitor Of Lunacy
3. The End
4. You Forgot To Answer

Recorded 3rd December 1974

Here

Reggae Christmas

2008-12-24T19:59:00.011Z

Quick song for christmas. If this doesn't get you feeling festive then NOTHING will.

Eek-A-Mouse - Christmas A Come

Particularly like the lyrics around the 40-50 second mark

I, Ludicrous Peel Session

2008-12-10T14:58:00.003Z

Unsurprisingly another Peel Session request fulfillment post..this time for Steve at Teenage Kicks

It's the one and only Peel Session that I, Ludicrous recorded - 21 fun filled years ago..

Since their classic debut flexi release "Preposterous Tales" the band have continued to record albums & gig sporadically, in fact I saw them for the first time supporting The Fall in Sheffield earlier this year and they were, indeed, fabulous

The two highlights of this session for me are "Quite Extraordinary" - the tribute to ex-BBC sports commentator and "A Question Of Sport" host David Coleman (who I have to admit I thought was dead, but apparently not) and "A Pop Fan's Dream (Sunday Lunch With The Geldofs)" wherein the narrator wins a competition to have a meal with Bob Geldof, his lovely wife Paula (Yates - now she IS dead) and their daughter Fifi Trixibelle (Peaches and Pixie weren't even born at this point). A story told with such a perfect level of sincerity that you can't quite tell how serious they are being until the final line delivers the pay-off.

The band had an excellent new EP out this year called "Dirty Washing" which I heartily recommend and you can buy it from their website

I, Ludicrous - Peel Session 1987

Edwyn Collins Radio Session & Interview 1992

2008-10-31T18:34:00.007Z

Over on the Rip It Up mailing list, the guitar player from The Siddeleys asked for an alternate version of the Orange Juice track "Consolation Prize" from the 1st album.

In quite possibly the the twee-est moment of my life, I'm only too happy to oblige. Here is an Edwyn Collins acoustic session and radio interview from 1992 featuring Consolation Prize, Felicity & My Dying Day (the interview was promoting the Ostrich Churchyard release) and Graciously from his second solo album.

Here he is

The Family Cat 3rd Peel Session 1992

2008-09-18T14:57:00.005Z

As requested on the posting of the first two Family Cat Peel Sessions at The Perfumed Garden today. Here is the third excellent session featuring stuff from their second and (probably best) album "Furthest From The Sun".

As always the Peel Session versions have an energy lacking in the officially released versions.

EDIT - now re-upped and taken from the MV DAT source (original file was from my off-air tape)

1. Furthest From The Sun
2. Too Many Late Nights
3. River Of Diamonds
4. Prog One

Download

This Poison

2008-08-06T13:34:00.003Z

This is another John Peel Session request from the new forum just started by the excellent Perfumed Garden blog, which you can join here

This Poison released a couple of singles on The Wedding Present's Reception label, before disappearing again, only to resurface as a distant memory 17 years later when Egg Records released an excellent anthology of their studio output. There isn't a lot more to say that isn't already said on the Egg Records biog page for the band and I thoroughly recommend you buy a copy of the CD. Cos it's ACE.

The Peel Session doesn't feature on the CD and I remember taping it off the radio a month after George Best came out, purely because "the Wedding Present release their records so they must be good". I wasn't wrong.

This Poison! Peel Session November 1987

Billy Bragg At The BBC

2008-08-01T13:01:00.005Z

Seeing Billy Bragg play "Between The Wars" on Top Of The Pops was a bit of a life-changing moment for me, and I've been a fan ever since - none more so than during his Worker's Playtime era (which I still consider to be his best/my favourite LP). I recently saw him play a solo gig in Lincoln and it reminded me how awe-inspiring he can be.

There is a great (although now quite rare) CD on Strange Fruit of Billy Bragg's John Peel Sessions recorded through the years, but I found a couple of tapes of non-Peel BBC sessions/interviews from the aforesaid era, which I now offer up to all fellow fans who may not have heard them before. VOILA

November 1988 Nicky Campbell Live Session (FM off-air recording)
1. She's Got A New Spell
2. The Short Answer
3. Ideology
Plus 10 minute interview

Sometime in 1987 Janice Long Session (AM off-air recording)
1. The Only One
plus 5 minute interview

As a special bonus - I've also included the BBC Radio Derby interview done in the queue for the toilets at the 1993 Phoenix Festival. This interview is the one referred to by Billy on-stage later that day, and captured for posterity on the Red Stars Official Bootleg available from the BillyBragg.co.uk shop. I don't suppose many people heard the actual interview so here it is..

Best Gig I Ever Done See #5 - Will Oldham Palace Bonnie Prince Bullshit Whatever

2008-07-16T17:13:00.007Z

Palace Brothers
Nottingham, The Narrowboat 7th June 1994

I somehow missed the very first Palace Brothers gig when they came to Nottingham in 1993 and did all the stuff from the first album, so I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't miss them the next time. Except when the next time came it wasn't a "them" it was a "him".

The second album hadn't been released when he played at The Narrowboat in (early summer) 1994 so I didn't realise it was just Will Oldham and a guitar, and at first felt a little short-changed when I realised that was the format for the gig too. At this point in my life I'd probably never even seen someone play acoustic guitar to so many attentive people in such a small room, but it was dictionary-definition spine-tingling (this was way before anti-folk and alt.country made this sort of thing commonplace.)

Will sat down and my first thoughts were "jesus he's ugly". Sadly he hasn't improved with age either..

Next he introduced a song with the words - this is called "I am a cinematographer" and when, at first, the lyrics seemed to be that phrase repeated over and over, there were people around me stifling giggles like they'd just turned up to a concert at the special school.

The evening progressed and the audience settled in as Will did a few tracks from the first album, then the giggles started again when he introduced "a song by Prince" - of course he was joking we thought...but no it was a gorgeous sparse rendition of "The Cross" from Sign O' The Times, which sat perfectly within the context of the religious imagery in Will's other songs. Was he joking? Part of me wonders if everything Will Oldham does is a joke I just don't get. That beard even?

When I got home the first thing I did was get my flatmate to play the Prince version (as I didn't own any Prince records - I was still scarred from my mate refusing to lend me the Purple Rain soundtrack when we were at school so I could offend my parents with the track about the girl wanking herself off with a copy of Cosmo). Anyway - I listened to it a lot for the next few weeks and it's still a big favourite.

So here is NOT the Prince version but the 2nd Palace Brothers Peel Session recorded on this visit to the UK, including aforesaid reading of "The Cross"

Will Oldham Peel Session 29 July 1994

The Sundays Peel Session

2008-05-26T18:28:00.004Z

As requested on the John Peel Yahoogroups mailing list - The Sundays Peel Session from March 1989...back when they were the next big thing. Ripped this from my old cassette copy this afternoon - the sound is pretty good for a nearly 20 year old tape.

The Sundays - Peel Session 06 March 1989

*UPLOAD LINK FIXED - NOW HOSTED WITH MEDIAFIRE SO CLICK THROUGH**

Barbel

2008-05-03T20:42:00.005Z

An obscure band from Liverpool, Barbel released one mini-album and a 12" single, recorded two excellent Peel Sessions and then disappeared.

I reckon it was about 19 years ago that I first heard this song (on John Peel of course) and it still sounds as good today as it did back then. The first track on their mini-album "One Horse Planet" on Pink Moon Records which I bought in Crash Records (Merrion Centre Branch) in Leeds and promptly fell in love with.

"House By The Airport" is a kitchen-sink love story that just gets sadder and sadder, but the tune is relentlessly up beat and has some great lines - "he had a foot in every pie and a finger in every door". I love everything about this song from the great one-finger organ line to the bum notes they weren't afraid to edit out.

Aside from my gushing admiration I must admit that part of the reason for blogging this is because there is virtually no information on the web about them (or maybe there is if you're prepared to wade through page after page of Anglers Weekly content?) and I reckon they deserve to be saved from aforesaid obscurity. They remain to this day one of my favourite bands.

According to Ken Garner's "The Peel Sessions" book, the line up of Greg Milton, Alison Williams, Roger Sinek and David Morgan was augmented on their second session by Simon Breed (who I assume to be the same Simon Breed from..erm.. Breed who did 4 Peel Sessions of their own). I also know that Greg Milton went on to be in a band called Dead Cowboys with members of Benny Profane releasing two albums (the last being in 2004).

I recently pestered Andy at Pink Moon records about re-releasing the One Horse Planet album on CD as quite frankly my vinyl copy is knackered (as you can hear on the vinyl rip below) and got a nice reply that was more of a "maybe" than a "piss off you have to be joking" so we live in hope.

Oh and they did a cracking version of "Winchester Cathedral" on one of those Imaginary Records 60's covers compilations - but I'll save that for another time.

Barbel - House By The Airport

"he became mesmerised by the sadness of life, incapable of action....too bad"

New York, New York

2008-03-10T18:57:00.003Z

A quick blog for my chum Steve at Domino Rally who is off to New York soon, making me insanely jealous in the process. As a coping mechanism I decided I could do worse than posting a couple of my favourite New York Songs..

Lloyd Cole - New York City Sunshine

One from his last album and probably up there with the best of anything he's written post Commotions. There are a couple of obligatory Cole-isms, cheesy lines about junkies and being "turned on" but the sentiment is pure - if you're in love and in New York you really don't mind the fact it is freezing cold and you can no longer feel your face

Craig Armstrong - Wake Up In New York

I was going to use the word cinematic but that applies to almost everything Craig Armstrong does. This one though is made all the more special by Evan Dando, the man who could sing the theme tune to Postman Pat and make it sound achingly cool. And when Evan sings about meeting you at the drugstore you can imagine he's there to pick up his methadone script standing in line behind Lloyd Cole who is buying Preparation H.

I'm off to Lisbon myself at Easter and I was slightly surprised to not find a single song about Lisbon in 160gb of mp3's on my hard drive...are there any out there or is Lisbon just not worthy of a song? The closest I got was Portugal by The Fall, but that's not even a good Fall song.

Better Beatles - The Mercy Beat

2008-01-19T09:45:00.001Z

I mentioned back in May last year that I'd been contacted by the original singer from Omaha's the Better Beatles to say that they were hoping to release the whole of the bands work on record, and it was with much excitement that I took delivery this morning of "The Mercy Beat" on Hook Or Crook Records of Oakland Ca.

Only released on 12" vinyl it can be ordered online from here for only $10 and you can pay with Paypal - the shipping to the UK was $14 but definitely worth it!

They've made a great job of remastering the 10 tracks, and everyone of them is superb, particularly Eleanor Rigby (given a jaunty nursery rhyme feel) and With A Little Help From My Friends (which they give a, really quite deserved, drawn out and painful death to).

I was surprised and flattered to receive a thanks on the back of the sleeve too - something I really wasn't expecting, and having given it a few listens this morning I know this is a piece of vinyl I will treasure.

I was in two minds about whether to upload another track (the two original tracks are still available on the earlier post) as I think my time would be better spent trying to lobby parliament to pass a law making purchase of this record mandatory.

Failing that - a happy compromise - here is the shortest track on the album, now yougobuy.

Better Beatles - Can't Buy Me Love

Chuck Berry

2007-12-24T18:14:00.002Z

Not a christmas song, shock. For I'm sure, dear listener you are struggling to find ANY christmas-related mp3 blog fayre...

Instead, a song to cheer up even the most humbuggy of yuletide-deniers (of which I am one I'm said to report) - I found this stunning instrumental track in my parents old stash of 7" singles (which believe me, is NOT the treasure trove I wish it was).
It's the b-side to Chuck's big hit "No Particular Place To Go", but it's definitely the proverbial hidden gem.

Essentially just a standard boogie, but Chuck lets loose and sounds like..well..like he doesn't know what he's going to be playing in the next bar. There are endless flubs and missed notes, but play it nice and loud and you can picture the beaming (and probably a little bit merry on magic booze) smiles. It's the sound of people enjoying themselves.

About 1:18 Chuck accidentally writes Rocket From The Crypt's "On A Rope" and from about 1:40 until about 2:05 he plays pretty much the same note for 16 bars. That they ever make it through 2:50 to the end is a little christmas miracle in itself.

And of course Liverpool is where the second messiah was born yeah?

Chuck Berry - Liverpool Drive

Captain Beefheart

2007-10-08T18:22:00.006Z

Ha...and they said that Captain Beefheart had no sense of timing.

Found in a random folder on Soulseek, I can't decide if I love or loathe this. At least there's some humour to it.

Captain Beefheart - Well [remix].mp3

Eight Things...frankosonically speaking

2007-09-01T08:19:00.002Z

OK, because Mr Hibbett didn't think I would respond, I decided I would do the honourable thing and have a go at "Eight Things You Didn't Know About Me". I appreciate it's taken me a couple of weeks but it's SO HARD! And also as this is meant to be the music blog I need to try and keep it music related and finish with a tenuous link to a choice mp3. SO here goes…

1) The first band I ever became obsessed with was Kiss, when at the age of 10 a lad at school gave me a copy of the "What Makes The World Go Round" 7" single signed by Paul Stanley. I still have it and it is blatantly not signed by Paul Stanley - he just did some scribble on the front and lied to me.

2) As a result of this pre-pubescent love for Heavy Metal I got a subscription to Kerrang for my birthday. Following on from that I was thrilled to learn that my sister's friend Colin was related to Rocky "Wrekkless" Shades of Wrathchild. Things took an even weirder turn when, on holiday with my parents in Menorca in 1984, it transpired that Rocky "Wrekkless" Shades was staying in the same hotel as us. My mum told him I was a fan and he was very nice to me. His hair was massive!

3) Round at my mate Benny's house in the mid-1980's we used to play on the ZX Spectrum, drink Soda Stream (which was state of the art drink-making at the time) and listen to records. Most popular choices were New Order's "The Beach" on the b-side of the Blue Monday 12" and Billy Idol's first solo album. I recently bought the remaster on CD and despite the fact they left off Congo Man for some insane reason - it's still a fucking great album - shut up!

4) My mum once played football on the park with Billy Fury and his band when they were playing at Matlock Pavilion. These days she is in a Gilbert & Sullivan Light Opera Society and they have won international competitions. I like the bit about Billy Fury better.

5) I still get occasional performance royalties for the tracks I played guitar on the White Town album that EMI released in 1997. The last one was £8.07 for radio plays in Switzerland. I don't think I've ever got into double figures.

6) With the event of tracking tools like LastFM it's fascinating to look back over my listening habits for the past 18 months or so. Then I got to wondering as to which record I have probably listened to the most over the course of my entire life. My internal LastFM mind memory churned the calculation for a few days and I have come to the conclusion that it is almost certainly "Misplaced Childhood" by Marillion. I don't think I could be any less cool at this precise moment in time, but bear with me.

Prog Rock has never been cool, and especially not the kind of second-hand early-Genesis prog that Marillion dished up in the early 1980's. Yet Misplaced Childhood is still a fantastic concept album and one I have come back to time and again from the first time I heard it in 1985, through every phase of my musical awakening. It's a lyrical tour-de-force and musically astonishing, managing to contain two top 10 singles in amongst the more intricate pieces, transient passages and recurring motifs.

I lost all interest in the band after the follow-up album didn't grab me, but I've recently discovered that Fish has been regularly blogging for years and the archive is available via his website. Boy has he had his fair share of relationship & business problems - the poor bloke has been through the mill but he's still so optimistic about life it's a joy to read sometimes (at the moment he is about to release a new album having been jilted a couple of weeks before his wedding day!).

So yeah, number 6 - I like bad prog.

7) I never had guitar lessons but learned via a square flexidisc called "Play In A Day The Billy Bragg Way". In all honesty it took me a little bit longer than a day.

8) Fittingly at number 8 - I once rented Eminem's film Eight Mile on DVD from Blockbuster, got home, put it in the player and then made some dinner. An hour or so later switched the TV on settled down with a plate of food to watch the film - then got confused when it finished after half an hour. Turns out that it was an autoplay disc rather than one that continuously loops the title menu and I managed to skip the first hour without even noticing. It really didn't make ANY difference to the plot, or my enjoyment of the film. They could have just made it a 30 minute TV show and saved themselves millions.

So that's my eight things - and the tenuous mp3 link is going to be a live version of Marillion's Sugar Mice (In The Rain), which isn't fom Misplaced Childhood but is my favourite song from Clutching At Straws. This live version comes from the Curtain Call boxset and benefits from a less polished sound than the studio take (plus the audience clapping somewhat out of time). Fish really sounds like he means every word of this "stuck in a hotel miles away from your loved ones" ballad. Anyone brave enough to download this, I warn you in advance there is a VERY 80's guitar solo at 2:12 but keep listening as the post-song monologue is one that puts Bono to shame...

Marillion - Sugar Mice (In The Rain) - Live In Milan 1988

Tony Wilson RIP

2007-08-11T10:53:00.001Z

The web is slowly filling with obits for Tony Wilson so I won't wax lyrical. Suffice to say that I grew up listening to Factory Records and thinking that Tony Wilson was the lord of absolutely everything.

The temptation to post something miserable was quite considerable, but instead here are the original 12" & 7" mixes of New Order's Temptation - possibly one of the most joyous songs ever recorded, and a particular favourite of mine since the day my late friend Mr Pyle lent me his copy and sent me home telling me that if I listened to it, it would change my life. Not sure it changed my life but it certainly taught me to dance like a twat.

Apparently the 12" and 7" versions are extracts from the same REALLY long version rather than edits of the same piece, so to experience the whole thing you queue the 12" version and then the 7" version.

I suggest you play it nice and loud right now and do le dance du twat pour Tony Wilson.

New Order - Temptation [Original 12" Mix] FAC63
New Order - Temptation [Original 7" Mix] FAC63

Plans And Apologies

2007-06-28T17:09:00.002Z

Yup I know that blogging youtube videos is lazy and not MAN'S blogging but sometimes we have to make exceptions.

I'm like everyone else - when you see an embedded clip with someone telling you that you simply MUST see it ROFL LMAO etc, you hesitate, you sigh, you begrudgingly click and 99% of the time it's a cat falling off a handbag and you end up hating yourself.

But my friends - I'm here to tell you that this is different. You may not ROFL, you may not LMAO, you may only vaguely LOL, but it's not idle speculation when I say Plans & Apologies are the best band you will see this week (OK...when I say that, I'm kind of hoping you watched a lot of the shit on at Glastonbury at the weekend and that might stack the odds in P&A's favour..)

They could be and should be MASSIVE - but they're wise beyond their years when it comes to the current state of the "industry" and continue to plough their own, deeply sexy, furrow. To get an idea read the increasingly bizarre bloggings at PlansandApologies.com. If you like the songs behind the videos below, then they have quite literally LOADS of mp3's to download from the same website.

Anyway they have employed two amazing young film makers to put together a video for each side of their upcoming single on Exercise 1 Recordings (released jointly on their own Pandaz Pop Records)

MeeToo is directed by Darius Powell. Animation by Darius Powell and Glenn Millington.

And if that animation has left you frustrated to know what these handsome young boys look like then they are revealed in all their butch glory in the next one - probably one of the few political songs that doesn't make me wince & manages to be pure pop at the same time.

Mel Gibson's...Iraq! is directed by
James Sharpe

I promise to get back to old-bloke reminiscing about late 80's indie soon...

Chet Baker

2007-06-10T20:16:00.002Z

I've been meaning to post about this track since the beginning of time - The Chet Baker Quartet's recording of Tom Adair & Matt Dennis's extraordinarily self-pitying "Everything Happens To Me" from the Legendary Barclay Sessions recorded in Paris November 1955.

A month before this was recorded, Chet's pianist, Dick Twardzik died of a heroin overdose and the rest of the quartet went home traumatised to the US. Chet carried on recording with local musicians and cut some amazing tracks.

One of my favourite ever Jazz vocal recordings - the majority of the Paris recordings were instrumental but Chet didn't even pick up the trumpet for this one. It's quite probable tht he'd sold the instrument for smack, but wait until 2:27 and see if it gets you like it gets me when Chet "sings" the trumpet solo. If that's not musical perfection I don't know what is.

There are other things that I love about this take - the way Chet hits the notes so perfectly on the line "but now I just can't fool this head that thinks for me" around the 1:37 mark - the delicate syncopation at 2:12 where it sounds as if the pianist has stopped to light a cigarette, and of course the line "everytime I play an ace, my partner always trumps..." still makes me giggle like a schoolboy (I know it shouldn't..i'm trying to be a jazz afficionado here.)

Chet Baker Quartet - Everything Happens To Me

Not bad for a smack head eh? I'm still astounded that people with such heavy habits could record music as subtle and beautiful as this - up next on Frankosonic it's the Babyshambles..what?

Chet Baker In Paris (The Legendary Barclay Sessions 1955-1956) - Buy at Amazon

The Family Cat -> Jack Adaptor

2007-05-04T13:46:00.001Z

Having spent the last month or so rediscovering what a fine band The Family Cat were, I was going to post their second Peel Session (as it's the only one of the three they recorded that I haven't seen blogged in the wild) but I ended up following the trail to MODERN TIMES and found that the singer Fred is still recording and releasing music as one half of a band called Jack Adaptor.

Despite the fact their website seems to throw annoying javascript stack overflow errors (or maybe this part of the "experience" and I just don’t get it?) you can navigate your way to the music page to hear some mp3 samples, but it's one song in particular (not on the website) that I've become enamoured of which you can download here:

Jack Adaptor - Everyone Talked About Us

Fred's voice hasn't changed a bit and neither has his way with words

Parkkeeper's coming to close the gates at dusk
I'm sitting in my car which is 90% rust
Doing crosswords in Russian just to pass the time
I've got an active mind and it likes to remind me that you were mine

It's a sweet super sad song about a failed relationship, but not the bitter immediate aftermath. It's that moment where enough time has passed for you to look back and remember the good times, but with the perspective to realise why & how it went wrong. You know it shouldn't still hurt but it does.

I must have listened to this song on repeat for hours. It's MY kind of song.

Half-time Round-up

2007-05-04T12:54:00.002Z

Whilst I've not exactly been setting the world of speed-blogging alive, I am still on the case and have a couple of new posts planned this week. Honest I do.

Big excitement for me personally on the blog front though when I received a comment on my Better Beatles post from a "JeanpSmith" - who it turns out was the original vocalist from The Better Beatles and she hints that the full Better Beatles session (they recorded an albums-worth) getting a release soon!

As I said at the time, info on the band was scarce (YOU try googling them..) but armed with a name I quickly found a great post on Crud Crud which contains a little more of the history and a longer comment from Jean explaining the origins of the band.

I never really intended to just blog old stuff, but I'm a sucker for reminiscing - and I don't like passing judgement on new stuff until I have the benefit of hindsight. Baggy has served me well in that respect. Nonetheless it seems that I've had a pretty good hit rate when it comes to digging up the past.

A comment on my inaugural Seymores post alerted me to Dave Fera's new band Big Blue Marble. Great stuff that retains a lot of the melody and melancholy of The Seymores

Since my first Ted Chippington post, he's come out of retirement, done a load of gigs, been on TV and released a boxset of his work! Last week I got a nice package through from Ted with recordings of a couple of the latest gigs and a little note signed "cheers chief"...priceless

Dave Howard Singers have also apparently just re-released their back catalogue (including various mixes of Yon Yonson) and Dave is still recording new music. Check his Myspace and snazzy new official site

A kindly soul sent me a copy of some more amazing stuff by Those Naughty Corinithians after my post thereof. It's just served to make me wish I knew a bit more about them though..

And finally since I posted the BOB Peel Session, Richard from the band contacted me to say they were also resurrecting plans to release a BOB retrospective due to renewed interest from the weird wide web. Official website on the way and some unreleased tunes on their new BOB Myspace. Richard also has some great solo stuff on his own Captain Black Myspace which is well worth a listen if you loved BOB.

Thanks to everyone who has left comments and got in touch so far, it really does make it all worthwhile! Keep it coming..

Sheila Chandra

2007-03-04T19:44:00.001Z

Coming home from the pub on a Friday night, one week in 1994, it's hard to put into words how much this woman fried my brain.

Sheila Chandra was appearing on Later With Jools Holland (with, I imagine, Ocean Colour Scene...they were ALWAYS on) as the token world music act. She stood alone in the spotlight and for 3 minutes did nothing but make weird noises with her mouth that were somewhere between a human impersonation of a tabla and the triple-tonguing exercises my old brass teacher used to insist we all did.

I bought her album "The Zen Kiss" and found that there were two versions of the Speaking In Tongues track, Parts III & IV (the first two parts were on the previous album "Weaving My Ancestor's Voices") along with some other less interesting synth-based wailing. I wish she'd stuck more to the tongue-based stuff..

Sheila Chandra - Speaking In Tongues III

Alas in researching her all these years later for the purposes of BLOG - it seems she had a track featured in the Lord Of The Rings so there are probably internet geek sites all over the shop debating her relevance to Frodo & that elf shit, but the goblin-lovers can forget it - I heard her first!

Mike Read

2007-02-03T15:31:00.001Z

One of my earliest childhood memories is being sat in the bath while my mum sang "The Ugly Duckling" to me. I don't think there was any deep significance to the choice of song, it was probably the only one she could remember all the words to - and besides - I liked it.

I also remember her buying a copy of it on 7" so that I could listen to it at my leisure. It wasn't until I dug out the single recently that I realised quite how differently Mike Read approached the song to my mum.

I'm pretty sure she missed out all the cockney rhyming slang and I'm equally sure that parts of the Mike Read version left my infant brain completely baffled - and to a certain extent they still do.

He starts off trying to do a proper crooning job but quickly falls into proto-Frank Butcher mode. By the end of it - it's like he's talking a different language.

RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRUNAROUND!

Maybe this is what bath time for Ricky Butcher was ACTUALLY like?

Watch out for the quacking guitar effect on wah-wah in the "all through the wintertime" section...tres subtle

Mike Read - The Ugly Duckling

Ted Chippington - News

2007-02-01T15:29:00.001Z

My original Ted Chippington post has been by far the most downloaded of my occasional ramblings on here (possibly because someone included the link on Ted's Wikipedia entry?). So, as there is a fair bit of Ted news going down at the moment, I thought I'd offer a quick round-up and a brief excerpt from his Leicester gig at the back end of last year.

First up, Stewart Lee is doing a piece about Ted on BBC2's The Culture Show on Saturday 3rd Febraury at 7.20pm where they will presumably be plugging both Ted's gig at The Bull & Gate, Kentish Town and also the Tedstock benefit gig at London's Bloomsbury Theatre on 5 February in order to raise money to fund the release of "Walking Down The Road - A History Of Ted Chippington" 4 CD boxset retrospective available now from Big Print Records at gigs or via mail order to bigprint@hotmail.com.

Tedstock will include performances from Stewart Lee and Richard Herring, who will also be performing together as Lee and Herring for the first time in seven years, as well as Kevin Eldon, Simon Munnery, Simon Amstell, Phill Jupitus, Josie Long and Robin Ince.

Stewart Lee's new piece in The Guardian about Ted is HERE

As if that wasn't excitement enough - someone has also posted Ted's legendary appearance on BBC's Pebble Mill At One back in 1986 doing "She Loves You" and being interviewed by a smug idiot in a neck brace.

From Ted's Leicester gig last year - a tender new song about world politics and a tale of life in Torquay.

Ted Chippington - World Politics

Ted Chippington - Life In Torquay

The Later Works Of...Lou Reed

2007-01-23T08:30:00.001Z

Everyone knows Lou Reed - the seminal fathers of all things indie rock The Velvet Underground, and then his early solo albums like Transformer & Berlin that regularly make those Mojo-esque "best albums of all time" polls, but I've always been fascinated by the part of his career between the glam-junkie era and then re-invented "thank god I've finally become hip again" New York era when he was just an embarassing middle-aged bloke with a guitar and a mullet.

In the 10 years between his last critically acclaimed album Street Hassle and the aforementioned "return to form" of New York, Reed released six studio albums that pretty much bombed or were ignored by the critics - punk had happened, dance music was the new thing and 80's studio techniques meant that even when Lou did come up with the goods it was suffocated by synthetic drum sounds and reverb (qv. The Blue Mask is widely regarded as one Reed's better 80's records but sounds incredibly dated to these ears)

1979's The Bells was the first album from this dark period and only contained 9 songs, maybe an indication of just how dry Reed's well was running. Each of the first 8 tracks is accompanied by a lame brass arrangement and takes in every R&B cliché going (particularly on the, presumably sarcastic, Disco Mystic). There is absolutely zero creative spark and no trace of the "good" Lou in sight.

Then something happens when we reach the albums closer and title track..

Don Cherry lets rip on free-jazz trumpet and Lou sets forth with a whispered string of consciousness lyric. It's almost like a rock version of Coltrane's Om. 8 minutes later and the horrors of the preceding tracks are forgotten, wiped away by a tidal wave of the avant garde. I probably love this song more because of it's carefully placed existence at the far end of such a bad album than anything else. It's typical of Lou Reed's stubborness and desire to annoy, yet, unlike Metal Machine Music it bears more than a couple of listens (and yes I have listened to MMM several times in it's entirety)

Lou Reed - The Bells

Just as the first Velvet's album married the sonic assault of European Son with the tender whimsy of Sunday Morning there are two sides to Reed's genius. "Tell It To Your Heart - again the last track and a hidden gem on 1986's Mistrial (where it was again obliterated by the sheen of the 80's studio veneer and preceded by songs of considerably lower quality) was reworked and included more recently on the Animal Serenade live set. Even the fat crooning sad clown from Anthony & The Johnsons can't ruin it for me. It's one of the most beautiful songs that Lou Reed has ever written.

Lou Reed - Tell It To Your Heart (live)

The Colorblind James Experience

2007-01-19T18:05:00.001Z

OK - this is my first request - my chum Steve over at the Domino Rally emailed me yesterday saying he had a hankering to hear this track and did I have it?

Boy do I have it. I first heard this track at John Pyle's house Christmas 1987 on Peel's Festive 50 of that year, a magical time where we were discovering all sorts of crazy music existed. It made number 47 sandwiched between MARRS "Pump Up The Volume" and The Gun Club's "Breaking Hands".

I can't think what else to say about it - stupidly catchy riff and stupidly catchy spoken word chorus bit.

Colorblind James Experience - Considering A Move To Memphis

Interestingly this is one of 13 tracks in my library that contain the word "Memphis". Can you guess what they are?

Never considered a move there myself but Al Green's church & Gracelands make it sound a good trip. One day...

Colorblind James Experience on Wikipedia

BOB

2007-01-06T19:55:00.002Z

Happy New Year etc - two things have cheered me up no end this week - firstly someone sent me a copy of some more stuff by Those Naughty Corinithians after my heartfelt plea in the post below. 3 demos and 4 live tracks including such masterpieces as "I Hate Cats", "Give US A Clue" (about the quiz show..obviously), "Eddie The Eagle", "The Weather Is Shit" & "Greater Manchester Buses Are Rubbish". And yisssss - pretty much every song contains the word "YISSSS!"

Secondly Tom over at the Indie MP3 blog posted up the second two Peel Sessions by the band BOB. I'd not heard these for a while and after downloading them it became pretty clear that they were the same mp3's that I'd made from my old cassette copies and set free via Soulseek a couple of years back. A victory for file sharing I think. Anyway - I told Tom I'd post the missing 1st Peel Session (and in my opinion the best one) to mark my deepest joy.

BOB #1 Peel Session 18 Jan 1988

BOB were one of those bands that were always a pleasure to listen to, everything they did was pure pop and, OK, some of it might sound a bit twee now but both band and listener had smiles on their faces - particularly during the indiepop anthem "Brian Wilson's Bed" featured on their debut flexi and also on this session in a full band version.