Music's Not For Everyone Part Three

Those of you who have enjoyed Andrew Weatherall's shows for NTS radio will be pleased to see that part three (of four) has appeared on the internet. Part two had a heavy dub and krautrock/cosmische focus along with his own remix of Julian Cope's Dayglo Maradona and Bill Haley. Two hours on the player below so get stuck in while sitting in the sun. What, you aren't on a six week summer holiday like me? Oops, sorry.

Andrew Weatherall - 15th July 2014 by Nts Radio on Mixcloud

Hey Ho All Gone

It seems particularly sad that with the passing of Tommy Ramone last week, all the founder members of the band have gone. Many bands from the previous generation still have all or many of the founding members alive yet all the Ramones are departed. Apart from having one genius song (pick a song, any song off the first four albums), the band and their first album were hugely important- the 70s punk scene in England used them as much as anyone as the starting point. RIP Tommy (and Joey, Johnny and Dee Dee).

Blitzkrieg Bop

Eight Miles Again

Husker Du's version of Eight Miles High is just indescribably good, a 7" single worth its weight in gold. Blistering, white hot, ferocious, 60s rock meeting 80s punk, with Bob Mould lacerating his vocal chords and fingertips.

Eight Miles High

There are several live clips on Youtube. This one is Husker Du live in Camden in 1985. Astonishing, sheets of metal feedback from Bob and manic drum thumping from Grant Hart.



Live in 1987 at a Dutch festival from someone's collection of home recorded VHS tapes, slightly less manic...

And Then We Touch Down

The Byrds and Eight Miles High- when folk rock became acid rock. It's the trippy guitars that get all the attention but the bass playing is way out there and the vocal harmonies are superb. I have loved this since I first heard it sometime in the mid 1980s. It was only twenty years old then but felt ancient.

Eight Miles High

Saturday Night Weatherall

I've got two recent Andrew Weatherall mixes for your delectation this Saturday night. Firstly the second show from his NTS radio residency, the usual eclectic mix of songs and chatter. I'm still playing catch up with the first one.

Andrew Weatherall - 8th July 2014 by Nts Radio on Mixcloud

Secondly, a free cd Andrew and Sean Johnston gave to punters at A Love From Outer Space's 4th birthday, an hour and a quarter of chugginess and sounding spot on for this sultry, stormy weather.



I don't have a tracklist for either. Adds to the fun doesn't it?

19 Julio

Sleep deprivation on a bus traveling backwards through Europe (me travelling backwards, almost everyone else claimed they had to face forwards or they would be sick). It causes strange things to happen. I dozed off briefly and was woken with Shaun Ryder intoning  two lines from Black Grape's Reverend Black Grape...

'You do  nothing but socialise and become a menace
Put on your Reeboks man, go and play fucking tennis'

This rang around my head for a good while. Then, at about two thirty a.m. we stopped at a service station somewhere in The Netherlands. One of the kids emerged from the top deck, rubbing her eyes, and disappeared into the toilet. When she came out she said 'Sir, are we in Argentina?'

I have no idea.

Reverend Black Grape

Guten Tag

I unfolded myself off the bus, after thirty six hours from Krakow to north west England yesterday. Sleeping sitting up is a skill I've not quite got the hang of and my back has suffered. But our school trip to Krakow and Berlin was fantastic, all the moreso because we were in Berlin last Sunday night when Germany won the world cup. The streets of Berlin were flooded with thousands of Germans, most draped in the colours. We'd passed the Brandenberg Gate early on Saturday and had a look at the fan park but decided that keeping sixty-four teenagers safe while watching the final might be tricky. Eventually we all watched it on a big screen in the square outside our hotel and Hauptbahnhof, the main railway station. This ensured a constant flow of fans before and after the match. It was crackers and probably a once in a lifetime experience- watching a country win the world cup in that country's capital city. It certainly won't happen as a England fan.

Berlin is an amazing city, one which I want to return to. There's so much to see and do- in two days we squeezed in sections of wall, Checkpoint Charlie, a trip up the TV tower, Alexanderplatz with its 60s concrete architecture, Sachsenhausen and the Olympic Stadium. Seeing some of the wall was a highlight for me- something that was such a key part of world history and from my lifetime. After Berlin we went to Krakow, which has a beautiful square and buildings, and drank tea (black tea with cold milk, the English way) in Noworolski Cafe, frequented by Lenin in the mid 1910s. And had a couple of Polish beers.

I've downloaded a few of the pics off my phone here...

Holger Czukay of Can, was born in Gdansk, Poland and raised in Germany. He has recently remixed some solo tracks from his 1977 album Der Osten Is Rot and issued them on 10" vinyl through a Berlin based record label, Gronland Records. Click on the link for loads of grooviness. The remixed Sudetenland, with Jah Wobble, Jaki Leibezeit and Conny Plank, is out right now and you can listen to it here.

Deutschland

I'm off on a school trip today so you'll find nothing new here for the next week. We leave north-west England at ten and head for Dover, crossing to Calais and then (hopefully) arrive in Berlin tomorrow morning. I've never been to Berlin so I'm pretty excited about it- plus, by stroke of good fortune and German efficiency, we'll be in Berlin when Germany play in the World Cup Final and are hoping to find somewhere outdoors to watch it, safely, with sixty-four teenagers. Whatever the result, it should be an experience. We've got a load of sights to see- the Olympic stadium, Sachsenhausen, the Berlin Wall, the TV tower, some museums, the Reichstag, Tiergarten Park. We've got two days in Berlin and then we make for Krakow, visiting Auschwitz and Krakow's Medieval market, before returning home next Thursday by an extremely long bus ride from Krakow to Calais.

There are so many Berlin/Germany musical references I could put here- any number of West German krautrock bands, Kraftwerk, Cabaret (the only musical I can really live with), German techno, Johnny Rotten's screaming line in Holidays In the Sun 'I was looking over the wall and they were looking at meeeee!!!', Nena and her ninety nine red balloons, Iggy and Bowie recording several of their best albums and lovers meeting by the wall, Trio's novelty hit from the 80s, various things Dirk and Walter have posted...
How about Michael Rother, ex-Neu!, and something from his 1977 beaut of an album Flammende Herzen (with Jaki Leibzeit on drums)?

Feuerland

Bring The Pain

I was never too  fussed about Wu Tang Clan. Nothing against them, I just fell out with hip hop around this time. And it seemed like I needed a wallchart to keep track of all the members and their offshoots and solo projects. But I bought a 12" of Method Man and Mary J Blige doing You're All I Need (To Get By) and the B-side was this Chemical Brothers remix of Bring The Pain. When I mentioned this remix to my hip hop obsessed sibling he said 'What the fuck's a chemical brother?'

Bring The Pain (Chemical Brothers Remix)