Nolan Porter 'If I Could Only Be Sure'

To finish June off (it's the end of June, what happened there?It seems like only yesterday we were under two foot of snow), here's another from earlier postee Nolan (N.F.) Porter, this time with the equally wonderful If I Could Only Be Sure. Somewhat surprisingly Nolan is backed here by two of former Frank Zappa's Mother's Of Invention in the rhythm section and Lowell George of Little Feat on guitar. This is late 60s slinky, funky, gritty soul/r'n'b, with a pleading vocal, and is utterly cool.

If I Could Only Be Sure.mp3

N.F. Porter 'Keep On Keeping On'

Nolan (N.F.) Porter's 1971 northern soul scorcher Keep On Keeping On, ripped from Across the Kitchen Table Drew's own vinyl. Thanks Drew. This is a Bagging Area (living room) floor filler. I can't stop playing it.

Spotter fact- Joy Division tried to cover it for an early demo they did for RCA but it didn't work out. According to Bernard Sumner 'we tried to do it but we were always fucking hopeless at cover versions'. They learnt the guitar riff though, and used it for Interzone on Unknown Pleasures.

01 Keep On Keeping On.mp3

Citay 'Careful With That Hat'

This song came up on the mp3 player during the drive home today. I didn't even know it was on it, don't remember either downloading it or transfering it. It's good when that happens. Careful With That Hat, from 2009, is a blast of summery guitar goodness from San Francisco band Citay, about whom I know nothing except that I hope given their name they're not City fans. After the downpour this morning, this was like the clouds parting and the sun bursting through.

carefulwiththathat.mp3

The Adverts 'One Chord Wonders'

From 1977 The Adverts' debut single, One Chord Wonders, was a rush of energy and a celebration of lack of musical skill and ability coupled with the spark of punk that got them up on stage. 'Come back when you've learnt to play' TV Smith sings self-deprecatingly at the end of the first verse, and finishes the song with 'We're one chord wonders, we don't give a damn'. They went on to release Gary Gilmore's Eyes and the Crossing The Red Sea With The Adverts album, both of which are great snapshots of 1977 punk, and despite their obvious limitations TV Smith could write songs and in bassist Gaye Smith English punk's first female player. Like Paul Simonon she couldn't play very well at the start, but looked great.

03 One Chord Wonders.wma

Spiritualized 'Anyway That You Want Me'

Yesterday Plain Or Pan posted the video for Spiritualized's second single, the lovely one chord drone of Run, and this morning Drew posted Feel So Sad, so I'm jumping right on this blog bandwagon with their debut 45, a cover of The Troggs' Anyway That You Want Me, from 1990, which sets out Jason Pierce's template from the outset. Tons of instruments, drones, stoned, builds, falls, very very hazy and very very nice. Not sure where it went in the end. Ladies And Gentlemen... was great and after that they've chased their tail a bit. I saw them on the Let It Come Down tour. The opening two songs were good and the encore was superb (two songs, fast, short and loud, one being the brilliant Come Together). In between they played the same song over and over, starting quiet and building as everyone joined in. It got a little dull. Early on though, as this and Run demonstrate, they produced a magnificent sound. Soak it up.

Anyway That You Want Me.mp3

Wild Billy Childish and The Blackhands 'Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler?'

So, with my tongue firmly in my cheek and Mr. Wild Billy Childish doing whatever he fancies doing, in celebration of today's game here is the Dad's Army theme done garage rock style by the bard of Chatham.

'We are the boys who will stop your little game
We are the boys who will make you think again'.

Time to deliver Wayne.

Who Do You Think You Are Kidding Mr Hitler (Asda Advert - Dad's Army Theme).mp3

La Dusseldorf 'Rheinita'

England play Germany tomorrow. This opens several can of worms, from Twentieth Century history to always losing at penalties. Two World Wars and One World Cup. Don't mention the war. Achtung, surrender. Dambusters. Stuart Pearce. And so on. Most of it seems to be in fairly good humour now, especially since England's travelling support go to watch football and have a good time, rather than take part in racist/anti-Irish songs and seeing who can fling plastic chairs furthest across foreign plazas at riot police while being sprayed with the water cannon, and half murdering anyone foreign. The German media seem to have accepted our obsession with them, the war and football, and can smile benignly, especially as they usually hold the upper hand on the pitch when it counts.

This is La Dusseldorf's Rheinita, one of the most gorgeous pieces of music I've heard. Formed by one half of Neu! Klaus Dinger and released in 1978, David Bowie called them 'the sound of the Eighties'. If only more of the music of the 80s had turned out like this. Attention krautrock sceptics- this does not sound like your idea of krautrock. This is perfection spread over seven minutes thirty eight seconds. This has more in common with the production of disco, the attitude of punk and the feel and anything goes spirit of acid house and dance music. I can't recommend it enough. Typical Germans eh?

Rheinita.mp3

Big Audio Dynamite 'The Bottom Line' Film & Cinema Version

This popped up on the mp3 player on the way home today, and fits in nicely with the Joe Strummer and Return To Brixton posts we've had at Bagging Area this week. The Bottom Line was one of the stand out tracks from B.A.D.s 1985 debut album This Is Big Audio Dynamite, and showed Mick forging ahead after being kicked out of the band he started, teaming up with reggae punk Don Letts. B.A.D. pioneered, certainly for a British band, using drum machines with guitars and using samples from films. Medicine Show, The Bottom Line and E=MC2 showed Mick in a burst of creativity, and all three and most of the rest of the album sound great today. This is the 12" version of The Bottom Line, stretched out over seven and half minutes but not feeling a second too long, and picks up from where the album version finished with 'I'm gonna take you to, I'm gonna take you to, I'm gonna take you to... part two'.

bottom line film & cinema version.mp3

Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 18

Another Friday night rockabilly Cramps cover, this time from the brilliantly named Del Raney's Umbrellas. Can Your Hossie Do The Dog? Well, can it? The Cramps being The Cramps substituted the word hossie for pussy...

Can Your Hossie Do The Dog.mp3

Joe Strummer 'Island Hopping'

A week ago Davy H from The Ghost Of Electricity posted Joe playing Glastonbury. I ventured the opinion that Earthquake Weather, Joe's first solo album from 1989, was a great album. I've listened to it again tonight. It isn't. Drew, my Scottish blogging amigo from Across The Kitchen Table thought his vinyl copy was buggered when he ripped Sleepwalking and then realised it wasn't his copy, but the whole album actually sounded like that. He's right.

Earthquake Weather is a deeply flawed album, but it's not without it's merits and has a real hazy charm in parts. Joe's got his Caribbean influences going on, and knocks out some good songs, but too often they're ruined by awful production. Some parts sound like they were recorded in a wheelie bin two streets away. Then guitarist Zander Schloss lets rip with an loud FM radio guitar solo, over the top of some potential great understated backing tracks. Lead track Gangsterville illustrates it perfectly- muddy production, some good Joe vox, nice piano chorus part, screaming twiddly guitar. It's never been re-issued on cd, and maybe someone should do something I don't normally approve of- go back, remix the whole thing and see if they can make a silk purse out of a pig's ear. To finish, the last song Sleepwalking is actually really good, and so is this one, Island Hopping. The rest is hit and miss. Still worth a listen though, and it did give us that great cover shot.

A3 Island Hoping.mp3

World Of Twist 'Lose My Way'

World Of Twist were the oddballs of the Manchester scene, with their 60s beat and Northern Soul influences and mod clothing. When Juke Box Jury was revived briefly in the late 80s/early 90s Bernard Sumner reviewed them by saying 'They're a bit 'we are weird, but they're from Manchester so I'll give them the thumbs up'. They had a wonderful stage show, including MC Shells giant clam keyboard stand and those rotating signs they used to have outside newsagents. Early single The Storm had beat-psyche backing rather than the funky drummer, and Stones cover She's A Rainbow showed an updated whimsical psychedelic edge. In 1991 they released their stone cold classic, Sons Of The Stage, with it's acid house-northern soul stylings and celebration of the dancefloor, club and gig. The whole song is like riding a wave, a genius pop single. So it was surprising that the Quality Street album was a bit underwhelming, flat production, all a bit same sounding, too quiet and too few dynamic moments. But Quality Street opened with this song, Lose My Way, their other great moment. Starting with trumpet, then driving drums and a 60s beat-pop lyric and vocal, it never fails to bring a smile to my face. Singer Tony Ogden died in 2006 aged 44. RIP Tony.

01 Lose My Way.wma

Holly Golightly 'Time Will Tell'

Holly Golightly has been making records since 1994, firstly as a member of Thee Headcoatees (a Billy Childish spin-off, who put out indie-garage classic Have Love, Will Travel), and then as a solo artist. She looks like the beatnik girlfriend I never had in the 80s. Inspired by the 60s scene, rhythm and blues and rockabilly she has released scores of albums, singles and e.p.s. This is a Kinks cover, from her well worth getting 2003 album Truly She Is None Other.

05 Time Will Tell.wma

Joe Strummer 'It's a Rockin' World'

After Earthquake Weather, his 1989 solo album Joe Strummer spent by his own admission many years in the wilderness, returning in 1999 with The Mescaleros to some success and acclaim, right up to his untimely death in 2002. In no particular order, he played with The Pogues after they kicked out Shane McGowan, wrote several low-key film scores (Walker, Straight To Hell, Sid and Nancy), finally appeared on Top Of The Pops with Black Grape on their Euro 96 song England's Irie, and had an eight year long dispute with Epic, his record label. Joe claimed he bored them out, eventually him releasing him from his contract.

In 1998 he popped up in, of all places, the South Park Chef Aid album. Joe is drawn faithfully in South Park style on the inner sleeve, but you can't see it as my scanner's on the blink and the picture doesn't seem to be on google images. The song is a little rock 'n' roll ditty, over in a couple of minutes, and can't have taken much longer to record than it does to listen to it. It also features, cock-rock alert spoiler, Flea from the loathable Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Tom Morello from Rage Against The Machine. Thankfully it sounds like neither of those bands, more like a lost rockabilly track Joe discovered and sung over. There's some typical Joe surrealism 'we got a surface module and a ... belly dancer', and some good Joe lyrics alongside a dumb chorus. It's not got the hazy charm of Earthquake Weather or the all fired-upness of The Mescaleros stuff but it's OK. One for the completists I suspect.

19 It's a Rockin' World.wma

Gonzales 'Take Me to Broadway'

I wouldn't pretend to be remotely in touch with hip-hop these days, now the biggest selling genre of music worldwide. I loved Public Enemy, and had phases of listening to De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, Eric B and Rakim, Gang Starr, Run DMC, The Pharcyde- the usual stuff for someone of my age I suppose. Never really got in to the Wu Tang Clan (although I did like Liquid Swords by GZA), which is when I stopped listening to it looking back. Other types of music just got me more, and it seemed to becoming very same-y to me. It also took hip-hip a very short space of time to develop a full set of cliches and rules which everyone had to abide by, which I'm sure wasn't the point when it started. Don Lett's Dread Meets B-Boys Downtown and the like showcased a wide variety of music, something that seemed to get ironed out by the mid-to-late-90s. Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm too old, maybe punk, dance, rockabilly and reggae just do more for me. I'm sure there are hip hop fans out there who could make continuing claims for good records being made. Apart from a Company Flow 12" I think this is the last hip hop thing I bought, and I've just noticed this came out back in 2002. I'm not sure it'd count as proper hip hop to the purists but it was a life long B-Boy who first recommended this to me. He might deny it now though.

Chilly Gonzales is a Canadian rapper, MC and electro artist, who also plays classical piano, and has spent some time collaborating with Peaches. He moved to Berlin after a major label flop, signed to Kitty-Yo records, developed a stage persona based on a Jewish vaudeville supervillain, and released Presidential Suite featuring this song, Take Me To Broadway. Gonzales takes the rap bragging style to new heights/depths in this song claiming amongst other things that he has 'an extra testical', that he's 'going to show my chest hair', that he wants to be 'loved and hated in equal amounts' and that 'I love the crowd, I hate the crowd, I constantly constipate the crowd'. Whatever that means. This is fun, bouncy, electro-rap, knowing but dumb, possibly hip hop, possibly not. Whatever it is, it sounds good on a hot day like this.

07 Take Me to Broadway.wma

Intaferon 'Get Out Of London'

Intaferon were two Simon's, Fellowes and Gillham, who released three singles in the 1980s. This one from 1983 Get Out Of London, reached number 93 in the chart and featured on the long-lost Max Headroom Show. It starts with the noise of traffic and a train, and then rattles into three and a half minutes of electro-punk, Subterranean Homesick Blues style frantic vocal bombardment, synth-bass and madly strummed acoustic guitars. It's one of those genuinely great lost records.


Get Out of London Intaferon.mp3

Go Home Productions The Smiths v Destiny's Child 'How Soon Is Independence'

I love these little internet coincidences. Earlier today I posted Can's I Want More, mentioning it's influence on Johnny Marr writing How Soon Is Now. Idly surfing a while ago I came across this, Go Home Productions mash up of The Smiths' masterpiece How Soon Is Now and Destiny's Child's Independent Woman. These two songs go together far better than you'd expect, in fact the fit is hand in glove. Ha. Incidentally get over to gohomeproductions.co.uk for a whole load of other mash up fun. Mark Vidler, GHP, has been at this for years, most famously producing The Doors v Blondie Rapture Riders and the ace Sex Pistols v Madonna Ray Of Gob (which I can't find my mp3 of, can't believe I deleted it). This one may be his best yet though, a beauty.

how soon is independence.mp3

Can 'I Want More'

Can made many wonderful records in the 1970s, but none of them other than this one got them on Top Of The Pops, in 1976, when it reached number 26. Strange days. The guitar riff is also one of the inspirations for The Smiths How Soon Is Now, as Johnny Marr revealed on a documentary last year, which I guess shows how wide his tastes were, not neccessarily obvious at the time. There was an excellent krautrock documentary on BBC4 last year as well, where the West German music scene came across as the most fertile and exciting place to be . It had the two blokes out of Faust taping themselves playing bits of metal with wide eyed joy, surely the most bohemian pair still living out their 60s/70s idealism.

In a World Cup related link, one of the best (unintentional?) bits of commentary on a football match occured at a tournament in the 90s/early 2000s, I forget which, featuring the German midfielder Stefan Kuntz. The Germans pick the ball up and come out of defence- 'Here come the Germans...Kuntz'. Not an opinion I share, but very funny nonetheless.

03 I Want More.wma

The Searchers 'Popcorn Double Feature'

I was looking through a box of cds that came free with music magazines earlier, and like many things they seemed to be better a while back than they are now. I glanced at one from Mojo in 2000 called, with typical understatement, 'Maximum '65- 20 Tracks From The Birth Of Rock', which I must have kept and not binned for some reason, probably mod-related. Scanning the tracklist there were The Small Faces, PP Arnold, Fleur De Lys, The Poets, Chris Farlowe, all good stuff. Then I spotted this- Popcorn Double Feature. Fairly uncool 60s Liverpool beat group The Searchers released it in 1967. By 1971 they had been hopelessly left behind, and become stalwarts of the chicken in a basket scene. In 1990 it was last track side 1 on Extricate by The Fall. Mark E. Smith's group's cover version is pretty faithful to the original, and like many covers by The Fall is great. But, as I rediscovered this morning, so is the original.

16 Popcorn Double Feature.wma

The Clash 'Return To Brixton' (Extended mix)

Not one for the purists, this is Guns Of Brixton re-worked in 1990 by Jeremy Healy of all people. It's testament to the song's strengths that a baggy-ish remix can't destroy it, and slightly odd that so little is made of Paul Simonon's famous bassline. This remix single came about in response to Norman Cook's Beats International number 1 single Dub Be Good To Me, which was based around Guns Of Brixton's bassline. Record company cash-in? Oh yes. Good fun though and surprisingly listenable. While we're here, how camp is that photo?

02 - Return To Brixton (Extended mix).mp3

Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 17

This weeks rockabilly has a distinctly doo-wop 50s pop slant. From 1956 The Dawn Breakers Boy With The Be-Bop Glasses ('Hey you, the boy with the be-bop glasses, and the suede shoes, come in') shakes, rattles and rolls, with some lovely doo-wop vox. If you listened to Weatherall's Double Gone Radio podcast over at Rotters Golf Club you'll already know it.

I'm writing this well in advance of Friday night, as I'll be watching England scrape past Algeria/under-perform massively/play like world-beaters (delete as appropriate) and I know Drew gets twitchy if he hasn't had his Friday night rockabilly action by eight pm. Here's an idea, for once England, how about you all actually play well?

And yes, I love the advert as well.

Boy With the Be-Bop Glasses.mp3

The Stooges 'Down On The Street (Take 2) (False Start)

One of the few joys of cds overtaking vinyl in the late 80s/early 90s was the box set, and even this was a mixed blessing. The whole box thing was good, lovely booklets and packaging, essays, photos, facsimiles of ephemera (badges, tickets, tour laminates, press cuttings), personal accounts and the sense of having everything in one place. The Clash On Broadway and the Joy Division box set are both good examples. Some of them are a bit frustrating- New Order's missed off Love Vigilantes and Age Of Consent in exchange for a whole live disc. There was also the overfaced feeling of 'Christ, now I have to listen to all of this'. But generally, a good thing, if obviously aimed at middle aged completists. Not people like me obviously.

The Stooges The Complete Funhouse Sessions set a benchmark unlikely to be equalled. Take an absolute stone-cold killer album and include everything recorded during the whole time they were in the studio- chat, out-takes, false starts, tracks finishing abruptly, the lot. As wiki says 'it contains every note, word and sound'. As such the ordinary consumer might feel that over twenty versions of Loose might be overdoing it a bit, especially when every version is almost identical. Fifteen takes of Down On The Street. Fourteen takes of TV Eye. Has anyone ever listened to any of the discs all the way through? Furthermore, the band picked the right take for the album every time. The extras are all superfluous. It's completism gone mad, but I love it. I don't own it by the way. Amazon has a used copy for $999.99, but there are places you can find it on the net. So here you go, Down On The Street, killer track, Stooges tight as you like, Iggy in charge, false start.

Down_On_The_Street_(Take_2)_(False_Start).mp3

Wounded Lion 'Friendly'

This band and record are ever-so-slightly deranged. Wounded Lion are from Los Angeles and make a ramshackle, noisy, lo-fi racket, halfway between 60s garage rock and 80s post punk. This one starts off with a riff and drums that sound like they were recorded in a shed, while the first verse goes 'Some people are friendly because they're crazy, and some people are friendly because they're nice.' It's a joyful noise and is recommended. They've also written a song about The Dagobah System. If you don't know where that is, ask Yoda.

Friendly.mp3

Reader Request Death In Vegas 'Dirge' Adrian Sherwood Remix

Anonymous left a comment a while back requesting this remix, the day after I cut the link. Adrian Sherwood's dub remix of Death In Vegas, back for a limited period.

dirge adrian sherwood remix.mp3

Gloria Jones 'Tainted Love'

This 1965 northern soul stomper by Gloria Jones is known for two reasons. It was famously covered by Soft Cell (and the 12" mix of their version is segues into Where Did Our Love Go by The Supremes, and now I think of it needs posting), and Gloria Jones was driving the car that hit a tree in Barnes, London causing the death of Marc Bolan. She was badly injured herself in the crash, and wasn't told he'd died until the day of the funeral. When she got out of hospital she returned home to find T-Rex fans had looted her and Marc's flat, and she received little from his will due to being unmarried. All of which is pretty grim. So let's enjoy this life affirming slice of dancefloor action.

Tainted_Love.mp3

Missing File 2

The M.I.A. Jimmy file's been deleted from my Mediafire account, gone in under 24 hours, and that's two in a week following the disappearence of The White Stripes song last week. I'm not sure how long this place will last, and suspect I'll get up one morning and find someone at blogger has pressed the red button. After some help and advice from the nice blokes at Acid Ted and A North Country Bhoy I've created a back up site at wordpress (baggingarea.wordpress.com). At the moment it's a bit 'under construction' but all the posts are there, so that's where you'll find me when I'm gone from here.

M.I.A. 'Jimmy'

M.I.A. is the sort of pop star we need- outspoken, multi-cultural and hook laden pop songs, Clash samples and gun shots (Paper Planes), Bollywood strings (Jimmy), Suicide sampling hard hitting songs with controversial videos (Born Free), political, with a dad who really was an on-the-run freedom fighter, journalist baiting- the list could go on. That she's stunningly attractive doesn't hurt either.

I first saw her on TV on a late night Glastonbury show a few years back. She was in the dance tent, in camouflage, doing Galang. It sounded fantastic. Her new album /\/\/\Y/\ comes out next month, preceeded by the brilliant Born Free (was it a single? Do singles exist?) a while back, which had the video banned by youtube due to scenes showing American redheads being rounded up and shot by the army. Born Free's been posted up in loads of places, so I'm not putting it up here. If you've not heard it go and find it, or watch the video at her own site. Her last album Kala featured Paper Planes, one of the best songs of the last few years, but that's been posted everywhere also. Instead you're getting this, which is equally great. Jimmy is a cover of a Bollywood song Jimmy Jimmy Aaja by Parvati Khan, although M.I.A.'s version features new lyrics refering to Congo and Rwanda. Done in a 70s disco style with swooping Bollywood strings it's an upbeat modern politidisco classic.

jimmy.mp3

Richard Hawley 'Happy Families'

Richard Hawley seems like a decent chap. When this first solo record came out back in 2001 he seemed like Morrissey and Marr wrapped up in one package, but filtered through the 50's rock 'n' roll and the pubs and working mens' clubs of Sheffield rather than Salfordian kitchen sink dramas and early Stones' singles. As he's gone on his records have got bigger sounding, acquired better production, more players and gained more sales as a result, but to me he never sounded better than on this little track, the final song from his self-titled mini-album debut. With more echo than the Mersey Tunnel, and some deft lyrical touches ('The night is long, the DJ's gone, there's only us, the friendly ones') this is perfect, like the last swig from the bottom of a good pint.

07 Happy Families.wma

The Wedding Present 'My Favourite Dress'

When Bagging Area started back in January I imagined there'd be more 80's indie than there has been so far, especially when I think about how much I listened to it at the time. So, to redress the balance here's archetypal 80's indie specialists The Wedding Present with a blinding David Gedge tale of jealousy, lost love and his favourite dress (that she wore, not him). Take it away Grapper...

07 My Favourite Dress.wma

The Residents 'Kaw-Liga'

I really hope they wear those giant eyeball heads all the time, at home, nipping to the shops for fags and milk, popping round to feed next door's cat. The Residents have been around for donkey's years, stealing, sampling, and releasing strange records. In 1986 they released this one, a cover of a Hank Williams song but using the bassline off Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. Which makes perfect sense. As does the record being picked up by DJ's in the holiday islands off Spain a year or two later and becoming a Balaeric/acid house anthem. Hank William's Kaw Liga is a wooden Indian who falls in love with the Indian girl over at the antique store. He cannot tell her because his heart is made of knotty pine, and 'poor old Kaw Liga he never got a kiss'. Eventually she goes away, leaving him to pine (pun intended), and 'as lonely as can be, and wishes he was still a pine tree'.

Kaw-Liga.mp3

Missing File

This is strange, and I guess it means I'm about to get a DMCA notice. The White Stripes Black Jack Davey link and file have been removed and deleted from my Mediafire page. Seems Jack's cover of a traditional song, released as a b-side nine years ago, can't be shared. Ah well.

Woods 'Blood Dries Darker'

Woods are a 'psychedelic folk rock band' from New York. Wait, come back, this is good. I know the words psychedelic and folk and rock don't normally get the pulse racing, but this track has a real fuzzy, woozy charm. I don't know much about them, but Weatherall played this on his 6 Mix show a couple of weeks ago, and it sounded great. I downloaded the album from e-music but havn't got round to listening to it yet. This post is dribbling away from me isn't it?

Bagging Area is looking forward to the England-USA game tonight, albeit gritted teeth and the fear that we'll be awful. Not sure from the picture that Woods look like big soccerball fans, but you never know. Good luck to Drew, JC and North Country Bhoy playing Glasgow's Flying Duck this evening at Blog Rocking Beats. I'm sure all my Scottish readers will get down there after they've cheered England on for 90 minutes.

4shared.com - online file sharing and storage - download Blood Dries Darker.mp3

Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 16

As covered memorably by The Cramps, this week's rockabilly action comes courtesy of Jack Scott, way back in 1959. Not sure what the trophy's for but the way he walks is just the walks...

The Way I Walk.mp3

World in Motion (Andrew Weatherall & Terry Farley No Alla Violenza Mix)

It's the World Cup again. They seem to come around fairly quickly now, must be a sign of getting older. I'm not here to beat a drum for England, I have fairly low expectations, and think they'll do well to reach the quarter finals. Not enough quality in the first eleven, aged defence and no Rio, too much rests on Rooney. We'll see.

But we should celebrate the football fiesta of the World Cup. So, today's post takes in two Bagging Area favourites (New Order and Andrew Weatherall) and takes us back to the only good World Cup song (comment all you like, the rest are awful, and I speak as a man who was born when Back Home was number 1), from the moment when English football changed, Italia 90. All the amateur footballologists can explain why it all started on the fields of Italy. Within three years of Gazza's tears and the penalty shoot out with the Germans we had the Premiership, player's wages going through the stratosphere, football shirts worn by people that had never been to game, shiny new (but soulless) stadia and the end of terracing (although obviously Hillsborough played a part here), foreign stars and coaches showing us how to play, the magic of Sky TV, and much more besides. Oh yeah, and men able to show their feelings in public.

It was also the only time football and pop culture and club culture collided in a way that was not just acceptable but cool. The opening keyboard stabs of World In Motion and that 1966 commentary sum up the summer of 1990 as much as Adamski, Happy Mondays and Spike Island. There was Bernard Sumner in the pale blue away shirt in the video, even John Barnes' so-called 'rap'. And in the spirit of the times let's not forget New Order lobbied the F.A. for the song's original title to be used- E For England- rather than World In Motion. E For England was spelt right for huge numbers of people that summer, in more ways than one.

We should also pause to appreciate the sample of beautiful official World Cup posters displayed here (from the top Uruguay 1930, Switzerland 1954, Spain 1982), works of art rather than the focus group, computer generated, corporate bilge we've been fed since USA '94. Would FIFA today risk art deco or Jean Miro to advertise their product?

'Love's got the world in motion and we know what we can do'

World in Motion (Andrew Weatherall & Terry Farley No Alla Violenza Mix).mp3

The White Stripes 'Black Jack Davey'

I've become less interested in Jack White as time's gone on, but when White Blood Cells came out in 2001 they seemed pretty exciting. The whole contrived colour scheme thing, the husband/wife-brother/sister tabloid angle, the Detroit scene they'd spearheaded. Most of all though the primal force of Jack's vox and guitar and Meg's drumming, coupled with turning highly unfashionable music (electric blues) into a mass market phenomenon. White Blood Cells was a blast, and the follow up 3l3phant turned them into pop-stars, whilst being one of the best rock albums of that time, streets ahead of peers like The Strokes. I liked large parts of Get Behind Me Satan. The most recent one, Icky Thump, despite it's Lancastrian dialect title and traditional British influences, was to these ears, a mess. No tunes, over-wrought, squeeling guitars replacing the punk-blues. One song You Don't Know What Love Is was good, and that was an FM rock ballad. They lost the simplicity, and with it the spark and lightness of touch. I can't say I was moved by Jack's heavy 70s style rock bands The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather either. Still, nothing good lasts forever.

This song is fantastic, and shows the imagination at work back in their prime. Black Jack Davey is a traditional British folk song, maybe from the early 1700s, and has been covered by tons of people. The White Stripes take the borders folk song, marry it to their primitive electric punk blues, and run with it. As it's a British folk song, it concerns class- Black Jack Davey is the wandering, raggle-taggle gypsy, and spies a fair maiden married to the local Lord/Laird. He steps in to save her, liberates her from her wealthy, aristocratic husband, her fine feather bed, her long blue gloves made of Spanish leather, and even her baby, and she declares love for cunning but penniless rogue Black Jack Davey. Even so, it's hard not to feel some sympathy for the Lord, hearing all from the servant, and finding his wife on the river bank in the arms of Black Jack Davey. This retro-updating of a traditional British folk song was the b-side to their breakthrough hit Seven Nation Army, and as a result must have sold bucketloads. Top stuff.

Black_Jack_Davey.mp3

The Gun Club 'Walkin' With The Beast'

Some more cheery goodness from LA blues-punks The Gun Club. This one's off 1984's Las Vegas Story and moves away from the punkier sounds of their earlier stuff to a (slightly) more polished alternative rock sound. Maybe they were hoping for a hit. Walkin' With The Beast starts off with voodoo tub-thumping and great bass and guitar from a new line-up, with Jeffrey Lee Pierce singing about the beast and living with the dead thing around him. And who are we to doubt him?

Walkin' With The Beast.mp3

Banderas 'This Is Your Life' (Ripe Mix)

Or the continuing adventures of Johnny Marr after he left The Smiths. As well as the Stex single I posted a while back Johnny lent his talents to this shaven headed pair. Banderas were two of Jimmy Summerville's Communards, Sally Herbert and Caroline Buckley, who formed Banderas as a dance influenced side project. This was their only hit, and I'm surprised to see it got to number 16 in the charts- don't remember that. This Is Your Life features Johnny Marr on guitar, tastefully funky and low in the mix. I seem to remember that they got Bernard Sumner in to work with them and he brought Johnny Marr along because he couldn't be bothered to play the guitar, but that could be false-music-press-after-twenty-years-memory-syndrome. Yes, I do remember ridiculous trivia. But if I don't write things down at work when people tell me them I've no chance. Anyhow back to Banderas, this is very early 90s, features that drum beat that seemingly every 12" had, is well Balaeric, and has what estate agents call 'plenty of period charm.'

Banderas - This Is Your Life ( Ripe Mix ) .mp3

Reader Request Paris Angels 'All On You (Perfume)'

Another reader re-post request which I missed, also from back in March, this time from Nik J for this Paris Angels single. All On You (Perfume) was much loved by many, although not Ctel from the mighty (but sadly deleted by Google) Acid Ted blog.

All_On_You_(Perfume).mp3

Underworld 'M.E.'

Over six months in and no Underworld, which is pretty remiss of me. Mmm...Skyscraper I Love You and it's album Dubnobasswithmyheadman were both massive records when they came out back in the early 90s, taking dance music, club culture, plenty of bass, a dash of techno and adding something new- stream of consciousness lyrics and space (the dubby kind and the futuristic outer kind) to come up with something shiny and new. This song is the last track from Dubnobass... After four sides of vinyl dub-techno brilliance (Dark And Long, Skyscraper, Spoonman, Dirty Epic, Cowgirl, River Of Bass) the whole trip bubbled to the surface with this song M.E. and it's pay-off 'It's a beautiful destination, what's it worth? It's a beautiful destination, goodbye Mother Earth'.

4shared.com - music and mp3 sharing - download 09 M.E.wma

Blog Rocking Beats

If you're in the West Scotland and Glasgow area on Saturday night (12th June) you should get down toThe Flying Duck and get down. Drew, who runs the excellent Across The Kitchen Table blog, has turned his hand to promoting- hence the first night of Blog Rocking Beats, with vinyl (I'm glad to say) being spun for unwitting punters. It's billed as 'the folks behind some of Scotland's best music blogs', and features dj-ing/record playing from the names you can see on the poster above, with a wide ranging and eclectic music policy. Free entry before eleven pm. What have you got to lose?

The Bagging Area Sound System was invited to trundle up the M6 with a box of records to join in putting 45s on at 33 and vice versa. I have family committments this weekend, but if it goes well and the invite is still there I'm hoping to make Saturday 10th of July. A date for your diaries there then.

Finally, award yourself a trainspotter point if you can work out the connection between the night and this track- 23 Skidoo's Coup. Easy-ish one I should think. No prizes though, it's just for fun.

Coup.mp3

Reader Request Primal Scream 'Higher Than the Sun' American Spring Mix

I've just been looking at some of my earliest posts and seen that back in March a reader called Madeddi left a comment asking me to re-post this Andrew Weatherall remix of Primal Scream's Higher Than The Sun, the American Spring mix featuring the harpsichord riff. So here it is, better late than never. If you're still reading Madeddi, this one's for you. Suppose I should get this set up so I get email notifications of comments. Once the posts slip off the front page I don't check the comments that often.

02 Higher Than the Sun [American Spring Mix].wma

The Gun Club 'Sex Beat'

Barnstorming brilliance from L.A. blues-punk outfit The Gun Club, following yesterdays 80s American indie punk Replacements track. Few people have managed to use the word sex in song without it being cringe-worthy but Jeffrey Lee Pierce more than gets away with it. This song is off 1981's Fire Of Love album, an album which I never get bored of, and which drew the template for many, not least The White Stripes. After this album the line-up changed (Kid Congo Powers went to The Cramps), and each album afterwards seemed to have less than the one before, though all of them have their merits. If you only get one, get this one.

In typical Factory fashion every band who played The Hacienda were filmed and the tapes given to the band. The band could then release the live video, and Factory got nothing. Typical Factory. I have the full Gun Club at The Hacienda on VHS, Jeffrey Lee Pierce prowling the stage, abusing the audience and letting them sing into his mic, and wilfully sabotaging this song in a 'it's our best song but it's become a millstone' kind of way. Jeffrey descended into alcoholism and died in 1996 from a stroke brought on by a brain tumour, leaving this song amongst others as a fine epitaph.

Sex_Beat.mp3

The Replacements 'I Will Dare'

The Replacements started as a punk inspired band in early 80s Minneapolis, but swiftly moved beyond the hardcore stylings into something less hectic. Lead songwriter Paul Westerberg hit his stride with 1983's Hootenany and then perfected it with 1984's Let It Be. The band repeatedly blew major opportunities, usually due to alcohol consumption and fear of success/selling out. The Let It Be album is their high water mark, containing some great songs (I Will Dare, Unsatisfied, Answering Machine, Androgynous, Sixteen Blue) but being a Replacements album they still sabotaged their best shot (songs on the album included Tommy Gets His Tonsils Out and Gary's Got A Boner). This song is a U.S. alt-rock classic, contains a Peter Buck (from REM) guitar solo, and rattles along brilliantly, the right side of shambolic, with a great vocal. Westerberg said it was about how the band would 'dare to do anything... dare to fail', which kind of sums them up.

13 I Will Dare.wma

A Certain Ratio 'The Big E'

Two hundred and thirty-odd posts ago I featured the remixed version of this song, one of my favourite records, ACR's I Won't Stop Loving You. This is the original version, taken from the Good Together album during ACR's short-lived stay with a major record label in the late 80s. Apparently ACR don't particularly like this album, and it's certainly slicker and more polished than both their earlier punk-funk Factory stuff and later house MCR era records, but it's not a million miles from their Force album (one of their best). I Won't Stop Loving You is one of the definitive records of the period for those who reside in Bagging Area Towers. The Big E, as it was first known, has a saxophone part which grates a little, and the whole thing is pretty smooth but the song is there, and a good song it is too.

Incidentally, the Good Together album was followed some time later by an e.p. called Four For The Floor, which led with a song also called Good Together which wasn't on the album. It started and ended with a Lou Reed sample. I can't find my 7" copy anywhere, which is concerning. If any Bagging Area readers have a digital file of the song Good Together, or the whole e.p. I'd be very grateful.

03 - The Big E.mp3

Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 15

'Christ, that sun's hot
Yes that's right sir'.

Just got back from camping in the Peak District (near Ashbourne) an hour or two ago. Have frogmarched two children over moorland today to visit the Nine Sisters stone circle. They loved it. Although some of us are quite red now.

And I just realised it's Friday, so here's your weekly slab of rockabilly, to be washed down with whisky and rye, and plenty of ice. This is Kip Tyler's Rumble Rock, from 1958, to keep the temperature high. I google imaged 'hot' and 'rockabilly' and the above picture appeared. A compilation worth looking out for I reckon.

Rumble Rock.mp3

Pete Molinari 'I Don't Like The Man I Am'

Yesterday's post was partly Bob Dylan inspired and today's postee, Pete Molinari, seems to have Bob as a major influence too. He's got a new album coming out shortly, but this one was released on Damaged Goods a couple of years back, recorded by Billy Childish and is a Billy Childish cover. Not that it sounds very much like Billy's lo-fi garage records. This is chilled out, beautifully played, and sung with more than a touch of Dylan-ness. The album also features the lovely Sweet Louise, well worth looking out for. He also dresses very well, something that always counts for a lot.

We're off camping now for a couple of days. Praying for decent weather. See you Friday.

Pete Molinari_09_I Don't Like The Man I Am.mp3

Half Man Half Biscuit 'With Goth On Our Side'

One of the main reasons for doing this is the hope that people might get into bands they might otherwise not have. Obviously the bloggers' argument is that these people then go and spend money on product, thus saving the British record industry from certain death. The last time I posted something by HMHB (alternative national anthem National Shite Day) a whopping 19 people downloaded it, so here's hoping a similar number of people at least go for this one. Rather than prattle on about it I'm going to give you three sample verses...

'Well my name it is Dai Young
I'm the King of Welsh goth
The village I come from
Is near Abersoch
I was brought up on Bauhaus
And black bedroom walls
And I had my first snakebite
When I was in halls

Now my overweight girlfriend
She sits and she crimps
Her mother's convinced she's
Communing with imps
Her brother's alright though
He's a good lad is Wilf
'Cos he's into Placebo
And Cradle Of Filth

Now this land of my fathers
It don't suit my needs
I'd rather be some place
Like Bradford or Leeds
Where the Gipton teenagers
Could meet in my shed
For advice on mascara
And all things undead'

For the other three verses, you'll have to click, click, click. It'll be worth it. The whole thing is done to the tune and vocal melody of Bob Dylan's With God On Our Side, yet another reason why Nigel Blackwell is one of the greatest songwriters and satirists these isles have produced. Enjoy, as fast-food operatives sometimes say.

Half Man Half Biscuit_08_With Goth On Our Side.mp3

The Jam 'A Solid Bond in Your Heart'

This song first appeared officially when Extras was released in the early 90s, a mish-mash of B-sides, unreleased songs, demos, alternate versions and the previously unavailable. A Solid Bond In Your Heart was The Style Council's fourth single, and was apparently in the running for The Jam's last single, but instead Weller held it back for his new band and he went for Beat Surrender. This version is interesting enough, lacking The Style Council's slicker production and featuring Rick and Bruce's more rocky, less soulful skills. I really like this version, but I like The Style Council's too. Can we hear Weller's frustrations with the straight ahead rock sound of The Jam, and the rhythm sections lack of swing? Maybe I'm imagining it.

A Solid Bond in Your Heart.mp3