Bagging Area

You're Wondering Now

2012-02-12T08:17:00.002Z

I was going to start Sunday with some dub- it's ages since there was any dub round here- but scrolling through stuff I chanced upon this and thought we should start Sunday with some ska. You're Wondering Now is probably best known to people my age as a Specials song and is maybe best known to people twenty years younger than me as an Amy Winehouse tune. It was originally a Skatalites instrumental; this later vocal version was recorded by Andy and Joey in 1964.

Ska now, dub later.

You're Wondering Now

Johnny Pretending

2012-02-11T12:15:00.001Z

After leaving The Smiths Johnny Marr spent time as a Pretender recording this single, which I think had a cover of The Stooges 1969 as the B-side. It's a bit tasteful late 80s but almost anything with Johnny Marr playing guitar on it is worthy of our attention.

Windows Of The World

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 46

2012-02-10T20:01:00.000Z

Pfft. Walk, tube, walk, train, tram, walk. Still better late than never eh?
Wanda Jackson, on fire for two minutes with some scathing notes on 'baby'. The guitarist's scorching too.

Nice dress.

Baby Loves Him

Django Django

2012-02-08T08:31:00.000Z

From East London via Edinburgh (or the other way around) come Django Django, who have been rather lazily described as a cross between The Beta Band and Hot Chip. Don't hear the Hot Chip comparisons too much myself but they are reminiscent of The Beta Band but with more drums and percussion. Django Django's debut album came out last week- I haven't got it yet- so this is from their debut single back in 2009. Reckon they may be worth watching, there's a quite a lot going on here.

Storm

Train Heave On To Euston

2012-02-07T08:40:00.005Z

I'm off to that London tomorrow for three days with some colleagues and a bunch of teenagers, which gives me an excuse to post one of my favourite, most evocative Smiths songs. Set on the platform at Manchester, Piccadilly, with the song's protagonist about to board the train leaving girlfriend and family behind grieving (and jealous), Morrissey up against one of Johnny Marr's riffiest guitar parts. This version is the Peel Session one. I've put something up for tomorrow morning; after that, see you Friday night.

London (Peel Session)

I Want To Do Bad Things With You

2012-02-06T08:29:00.000Z

I may be about to blot my copybook here. About eighteen months ago a friend whose taste I usually trust asked if we'd watched True Blood and then deposited the boxed sets for Series 1 and 2 with us. I wasn't confident- I mean, come on, vampires? The fact it was made by HBO meant we gave it a go and inevitably gobbled up all twenty four episodes pretty quickly before going in for Series 3. It's high camp with lashings of gore and filth and is completely ridiculous but good fun too and not what I'd usually watch. What got me pretty quickly was the theme song, Bad Things, played over the opening titles with a mixture of southern gothic imagery. The song's by someone called Jace Everett, about whom I know nothing. The new series started last night. We don't (and won't) have Sky so will have to wait for the box set. In the mean time here's the song from those titles. It's not as good without the pictures to be honest.

Bad Things

Sameblod

2012-02-05T08:33:00.000Z

The third new thing from my Inbox comes from Stockholm, Sweden and a duo called Sameblod with some really nice synth-pop/electronicascandanavia (that's my new label). Frederick Rundqvist and Mikael Mattisson (pictured above. Or possibly not) met at school last year and as their email nonchalantly put it 'shared the same taste and decided to try and work their hand at songwriting and creating music'. Just like that. At a disgustingly young age too. Harumph. Good song this, you might like it.

Loud

Flammende Herzen

2012-02-04T18:47:00.002Z

As a companion piece to Davy's Cluster post yesterday this is Neu!'s Michael Rother back in 1977. Less the sound of sub-zero February this is a warm, hypnotic ride, waves of kraut synths, treated guitars and Jaki Leibzeit's motorik drumming.

Flammende Herzen

Dot Dash

2012-02-04T08:44:00.000Z

Dot Dash are named after a Wire song, are from DC (Washington to you and me in the UK), and play sparky, nicely ramshackle, English sounding guitar pop which would have sounded perfectly at home on pre-Oasis Creation. These are good songs, worth playing on repeat a few times while they reveal their charms. I couldn't get the mp3s they sent me to download so you'll have to make do with Soundcloud links.

There And Back Again Lane

Tragedy-Destiny

For added fun Dot Dash's bio has the names of the bands the members have previously been in- Julie Ocean, Modest Proposal, The Saturday People, Youth Brigade, Tree Fort Angst and Glo-Worm. I can visualise all these bands.

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 45

2012-02-03T17:02:00.000Z

...and the return of the rockabilly Barbie too. Tonight's song is by Big Daddy G, not I assume the Daddy G out of Massive Attack (although Massive Attack tackling rockabilly would be interesting to hear. Maybe). Have a rocking weekend.

Big Berry (Boss Man Guitar)

Two Suns Two

2012-02-03T08:17:00.000Z

I get stuff sent to my email inbox by people hopeful I'll feature it here (not that Bagging Area has a glistening track record for breaking new bands). It's not the reason I started blogging but I do feel guilty sometimes when peoples' music sits languishing on my computer and I haven't done anything about it. At the same time, this isn't a new music blog and I'm not going to put stuff up here just because it gets sent to me. There's a few things that have come over the last few weeks that might be worth having a look at though so I'm going to try to post some of them over the next few days.

I featured the low key electronica of Two Suns a bit under a year ago. Two Suns (Jake Davidson) is releasing an album by giving a download away every week for ten weeks (or you can choose to pay for it, naming your own price). This song -Not The End- is week four I think and described as 'aggressive shoegaze'. It's got a woozy quality I like. Find it here.

Weatherall Overkill

2012-02-02T18:41:00.003Z

This is a public service announcement-
I've had an email from Rotters Golf Club with two bits of news for the Audrey heads among you.

A 2SER radio show to stream from his recent jaunt to Australia, with studio chat and songs from The Monks, T-Rex, Wizzard, The Triffids, Amon Duul, AR Kane, Brian Eno and Bill Drummond as well as the man's own remixes of Grinderman, Soft Rocks, Cut Copy and the Horrors. It's here.

Also, from 7pm tonight Weatherall's doing a weekly radio show between 7 and 9 for XOYO London, listen here . That's Thursday nights sorted. Well it's not like there's anything on the telly.

Statement ends. As you were.

I'm Not With The Hundred Crowd I'm With Ninety-Nine

2012-02-02T18:34:00.001Z

Some time ago I posted Big Audio Dynamite's Other 99, a song about not being the best, not being at the top of the pile, sometimes settling for five out of ten. This philosophy is completely against current educational thinking and aspirational politics but perfectly in chime with the Occupy Movement and all that stuff about the 99% (us) versus the 1% (bankers etc). It's a really good BAD song. This is the 12" Extended Version- the first half is the normal song. Then there's a lovely four minutes of keyboards and guitars, Mick and co making good use of those extra inches.

Other 99 (Extended Version)

Remix Round Up

2012-02-02T08:53:00.000Z

I don't know if readers are getting bored of the repeated Andrew Weatherall posts here but I feel duty bound to share, especially when he's on such a roll at the moment. Two links to listen only Andrew Weatherall remixes for this morning, both crackers. First up the slow-mo, bass heavy reworking of a song off Wooden Shjips' West album from last year; Crossings (Andrew Weatherall Remix) can be found on youtube here. The limited edition remix 12" includes a Sonic Boom remix and is out on Thrill Jockey on February 21st. Second, an electronic wonder job for Clock Opera (who I've not heard of) with a brilliant repeated bit where the keyboards go all wonky- Once And For All (Andrew Weatherall remix) is here. Listen only, but what a listen. You can probably find places to download them but obviously I wouldn't encourage that sort of thing.

And Thoughts Of You Will Stay With Me

2012-02-01T08:05:00.001Z

Before cds and re-issue culture 'great lost albums' were just lost. Dexys Midnight Runners' 1985 album Don't Stand Me Down was one of them, partly due to Kevin Rowlands bewildering insistence on changing everything about the band after each album. For Don't Stand Me Down the band left behind the raggle-taggle gypsy, hit making folk-pop of Too-Ray-Ay and adopted preppy suits, slicked back hair and an album without any singles and several long spoken word tracks. It cost a massive amount of money and according to the saxophonist making it was 'uncomfortable and unnatural'. As a 'great lost album' it is naturally a neglected masterpiece and has been re-issued at least twice, once by Creation. Which led to Kevin Rowlands solo album. But that's another story. This song is a neglected masterpiece, re-named for the re-issue. It swings.

I Love You (Listen To This) ne Listen To This

Manhattan To Manchester- The Wonders Of The Internet

2012-01-31T08:33:00.001Z

Isn't the internet wonderful?
A few days ago I got in from work to open an email from a reader- Henry from Manhattan, New York. That on its own is enough to bugger up my mind a little; someone on the other side of the world has been reading my blog. Henry wrote loads of nice things in his email, how he's been exploring loads of English/British bands and acid house from twenty years ago and how Bagging Area 'helps music become a social experience' and how the internet has limitless and instant communication. Which is what blogging is all about really. Henry also sings and plays in a band, Zula, who play psych-indie pop partly inspired by the acid house/post acid house bands and partly by krautrock. Listen to this over at Bandcamp (and download it for free) and I think you'll agree that Henry and Zula have got it nailed down very well and from what he told me their hearts are slapbang in the right place.

To Bears

2012-01-30T19:32:00.000Z

2 Bears have been all over the place recently. I've largely ignored them up until now. Two men in comedy bear outfits making big room house music with one member being twenty percent of Hot Chip (who seem to make music at an ironic distance) hasn't exactly set my pulse racing. But maybe I've been too soon to dismiss them- their music is a decent stab at making proper house music for dancing to and there's a line up of people whose taste I trust playing them- Andrew Weatherall, Annie Mac, Erol Alkan. On the other hand they're also recommended by Chris Moyles, Pete Tong, Paul McCartney and Elton John. So, um, I dunno. This is a free download of a remix of Work off their album (out today; the email said send people to buy it at iTunes or Amazon but I'd rather you went to a record shop), done by the ever wonderful St Etienne (who usually get the internet police to pull stuff I post of theirs).

Electronic Rudie

2012-01-30T08:30:00.004Z

I don't usually post mixes but I'll make an exception for this one- Ashley Beedle's Electronic Rudie, a dub mix done for the ever excellent internet radio station Beats In Space back in 2009. This is very, very good and finds dub in some pretty unusual places. Give an hour or so over to this and you'll feel a whole lot better afterwards.

Tracklist
Generations Walking - Midnight Bustling (Francois Kevorkian Dub)
Basement 5 - Immigrant Dub
The Pop Group - 3:38
Dub Pistols feat . Rodney P - You'll Never Find (Dub)
Stiff Little Fingers - Bloody Dub
Generation X - Wild Dub
Flesh For Lulu - I'm Not Like Everybody Else (Dub Version)
The Pogues - Young Ned Of The Hill (Dub Version)
The Clash - One More Dub
Bauhaus - Here's The Dub (She's In Parties)
Leftfield - Dub Gussett
Air - How Does It Make You Feel? (Adrian Sherwood Mix)
Massive Attack vs Mad Professor - Radiation Ruling The Nation (Protection)
Reverend And The Makers - Sundown On The Empire (Adrian Sherwood On U Sound Disneydubland)
The Clash - Robber Dub
The Specials/Rico Rodriguez - Ghost Town (Extended Mix)

Electronic Rudie!

Afro-Cuban Bebop

2012-01-29T08:20:00.001Z

Some nice Afro-Cuban Bebop from Joe Strummer, a short track (only a minute and a half long) recorded with The Pogues (moonlighting as The Astro-Physicians), B-side to the wilderness years highlight Burning Lights. Just to check Box.net's working for me as much as anything.

Afro Cuban Bebop

Something For The Weekend Madam?

2012-01-28T08:09:00.000Z

Picking up where Lux left off last night, Memphis Minnie advising her partner to 'keep on eatin', 'til you get enough'.

Keep On Eatin'

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 44

2012-01-27T17:50:00.002Z

'Calling all cows down on the farm' sings Lux Interior at the opening of this Cramps rockabilly cracker, borrowing from another older rockabilly song by The Blues Rockers. Lux then fits in more innuendo and filth than an X Rated Carry On film- 'unzip that zipper, snap that snap' 'whip that cream 'til the butter comes', 'shake that thing I'll buy you a diamond ring', 'let's get up and go get ploughed', and so on. Meanwhile the band shake their rockabilly things and Ivy provides a vicious feedback led breakdown. This version of the song from 1986's A Date With Elvis was recorded for the band's only Peel Session. Hot stuff.

Cornfed Dames (Peel Session)

Weatherall Mix Roundup 6

2012-01-27T08:57:00.004Z

Fail he may. Sail he did.
He's in Australia. Some of you might like this, mix for a radio show Noise In My Head, to download in two parts here.

Funnel Of Slow

2012-01-26T08:27:00.003Z

A good while ago DJ Diddy Wah who runs the excellent vintage sounds of the Diddy Wah blog had a short run of posts where he slowed down 45 rpm singles to 33 rpm. This one came up on the way home today and it has to be heard to be believed- Wanda Jackson's classic Funnel Of Love at 33 rpm, slowed down to crawl and sung by a blues wracked man. You'll love it.

Funnel Of Love 33

Thanks to DJ Diddy Wah- hope he doesn't mind me re-presenting it here.

Beat Club And Bernard

2012-01-25T08:42:00.003Z

In a similar vein to yesterday's post but actually a much better record is this, Security by Beat Club. When New Order called it a day in 1991 (for the first time) manager Rob Gretton set up a label, Rob's Records, partly to put out ACR records and partly to release tracks by local bands. Beat Club were neither local nor ACR but actually from Miami, the studio project of Ony Rodriguez and his girlfriend Mireya Valls. This song is remixed by Bernard Sumner and is a fairly accurate summary of what dance music could sound like in 1991, certainly in the northwest of England. Stuff like this still has the power to get the Swiss household skipping round the frontroom and standing on the furniture.

Security (Bernard Sumner remix)

Rob's Records folded in 1999 following the death of Rob Gretton. In the 90s they had a big hit with Sub Sub's Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use), put out several decent ACR songs (personal favourite 27 Forever among them) and tracks by several other bands including Mr Scruff and Strange Brew, one half of which lived down our road when we were kids (Jake Purdy, if you're reading this, sorry about the tooth)

Electronic Shack Up

2012-01-24T08:29:00.001Z

In the mid 90s A Certain Ratio got various people to remix and retool their back catalogue for an album called Looking For A Certain Ratio, which ended up coming out on Creation Records. The remixers included 808 State's Graham Massey, Jon Dasilva and John McCready, Sub Sub, Way Out West, The Other Two and Electronic. Johnny Jay turned in a remix of Mickey Way called the Manchester City Mix, which definitely won't be posted here. Nearly twenty years on there's an element of 'why bother' about some of these remixes, as they stripped away the period punk-funk and added mid 90s dance software. Electronic tackled Shack Up. You can probably guess what it sounds like- worth a listen though, Johnny Marr and Bernard Sumner (I'm guessing it was mainly Sumner but don't know for sure) providing a version of Shack Up that sounds very much like music sounded in Manchester's bars at the time.

Shack Up Radio edit (Electronic Mix)

Endgame?

2012-01-23T16:45:00.004Z

Given all the goings on with Megaupload and the such it possibly shouldn't be a surprise that I've just logged into my Mediafire account and found every mp3 file gone, the last month's songs. They've wiped the lot, including the files for the posts for tomorrow and Wednesday. Anyone else affected by this? Is it worth re-upping them? Switch filehost? Give up? Go legit?
Answers on a postcard...

Edit; I don't know if it's just me that's lost all my Mediafire files, if it's deliberate by them or what. A random look shows some other people's Mediafire files still working. I don't know what's going on. I've uploaded the songs for the next two posts using 4shared as I already had an account there. I'll look into Boxnet soon (although Ally reports they've deleted files from her account), and wait to see what happens with Mediafire. I'm tempted to upload some stuff using Mediafire and see what happens. The last months' worth of posts' links have gone and I can't be arsed to re-up them at the moment through another filehosting service. If anyone wants anything desperately let me know and I'll see what I can do.

I Can't Love You, I Really Don't Think That I Can

2012-01-23T08:04:00.001Z

As a wee follow up to yesterday's Billy Childish post this is another of Billy's key songs, re-recorded with Medway folk-punk band The Singing Loins, although this is folk above punk in terms of sound. Sounds like it was recorded in someone's kitchen. Which it probably was. You can find The Singing Loins website here, with a biography that finishes with these words: 'Perversely unambitious, they remain untainted, uncorrupted and above all still doing it for the reason they started- love.'

I Don't Like The Man I Am

We Live In Troubled Times

2012-01-22T08:58:00.001Z

I've been on a Billy Childish tip recently- his output is so varied and prolific. Music, woodcuts, linocuts, paintings, novels, autobiography, poetry. The music is much more varied than his reputation suggests. There is a lot of Kinksy garage rock, but there's also blues, gospel, English folk, Mod pop-art. He changes the name of the band every time someone leaves or joins (it's a matter of respect according to Billy). The limitations he places on himself seem to be what unleashes the creativity. Really inspiring. The sheer number of records released is also inspiring- a couple of albums a year, and every one contains two or three absolute blinders. On top of that the worldview is great- the Edwardian work clothes, militaria, Victorian whiskers, aversion to the later Twentieth century. I reckon he might do some of his clothes shopping here, which must be very nice if you can afford it. A google image search also reveals he's regularly in demand by photographers for their portfolios. He's got one of those interesting faces, often topped by an interesting hat. Mr Wild Billy Childish- I take my hat off to you sir. Long may you run.

This song is one of Billy's key pieces- recorded and played live with several of his bands, the version here is by his 90s trio Thee Headcoats.

Troubled Times

Some Grow Up And Some Grow Old

2012-01-21T09:01:00.000Z

One of my favourite albums is Rancid's 1995 lp ...And Out Come The Wolves. It's not original or groundbreaking or envelope pushing. It's just a record full of two-to-three minute punk songs, with a side order of ska, brilliantly recorded guitars, gut busting vocals and guttersnipe Californian street poetry. It is, as Billy Childish might put it, placing authenticity over originality. And if you're going to listen to an American 90s punk band I'd take Rancid over the masses of also-rans and pop-punkers that came after them. Rancid meant it, man, and sounded great too.

Daly City Train

Weatherall Mix Roundup 5

2012-01-20T18:42:00.000Z

You might want to have a look at this over at Soundcloud. Andrew Weatherall playing Back To Basics 20 last December. Starts and ends with Smokebelch. Two hours plus long. Free download. What are you waiting for?

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 43

2012-01-20T17:13:00.001Z

Another song from the Best Of Fury Rockabilly Volume 2, as promised last week. This one was a bit of a revelation. First revelation- it's unexpectedly good, with an urgent, rocking, raw, bluesy guitar riff, great distorted vocals, real contemporary rockabilly. Second revelation- they're from Austria.

Man's Ruin

I Got Lost Inside It All

2012-01-20T07:34:00.000Z

After escaping The Bunnymen Ian McCulloch released his solo album Candleland. It led with this single, a perfectly formed little song with typically McCulloch lyrics. In truth it also sounds like the last blast of the old days of the mid 80s, before 1989 turned into something else for fans of guitar bands. Still, it sounds pretty good today, twenty three years on. Yep- twenty three.

Proud To Fall

Leather Cliche

2012-01-19T08:51:00.000Z

Kid Congo Powers probably doesn't have anything as prosaic as a CV (or a Resume if you're reading this in the USA) but the Former Employment section would be more interesting to read than most of us manage- Cramps, Gun Club, Bad Seeds. His third album with the Pink Monkey Birds came out last year- Gorilla Rose- and was a stylish, garage guitar goodie bag. This is from his 2005 album (Philosophy And Underwear)and has all the sort of things you'd want from a Kid Congo Powers record.

Even Though Your Leather Is Cliche

Spitting In A Wishing Well

2012-01-18T08:56:00.004Z

When X Factor was reaching it's thrilling conclusion a month ago and the eventual winners Little Mix announced that their shot at the Christmas number one slot would be a cover of Cannonball my ears pricked up slightly. A girl group cover of Kim and Kelley Deal's 1993 indie-disco staple, with it's crunchy riff, shouty chorus and let's-jump-around bassline could at least be interesting. Alas it was not to be. What's more, I can't remember who the Cannonball they covered was by and can't be arsed to check. Give it another month and people won't remember Little Mix either.

Cannonball

What A Feeling

2012-01-17T08:01:00.005Z

A song from 1990's Four To The Floor e.p. where Manchester's A Certain Ratio returned to the dancefloor. Good Together is possibly my favourite ACR song- it opens with a vocal sample (Lou Reed) before a 303 kicks in, the song takes over, the Beach Boys get referenced and Bernard Sumner and Shaun Ryder give backing vocal assistance too. I never get bored of this.

Good Together

Coming Round Again

2012-01-16T16:48:00.001Z

Orbital are back after an eight year absence- there's a new song called Never at Soundcloud you can download for free. Listening to it, it really doesn't sound like they've ever been away. I love it already, even with its abrupt ending.

Buffalo Beat

2012-01-16T08:35:00.001Z

Andrew Weatherall's remix of Soft Rocks, one of my favourite records of 2011; slapping bass, glam rock stomp, rockabilly vocals. I got the 12" back in the Autumn (which wasn't cheap) but I'm having trouble ripping vinyl at the moment so this is a shorter version ripped from youtube (and hence lowish in sound quality; the youtube ripper only rips at 128kbm). To be honest, I just wanted an excuse to post the picture...

We Hunt Buffalo Now (Weatherall Remix)

Time And Space

2012-01-15T09:19:00.001Z

The Time And Space Machine, balaeric-cosmic-disco-stomp from ex-Grid man Richard Norris, have a new album out soon. The single to promote it, the magnificently titled Pill Party In India, is up to listen to at Soundcloud. It's well good, as my daughter might say.

This is the title track from 2009's album, organ led, throbbing bass and deeply psychey.

Set Phazer To Stun

Picture Post

2012-01-14T20:21:00.000Z

This is one of my favourite pictures in all of rock 'n' roll- David Bowie and Iggy Pop at Copenhagen Central Railway Station, 'travelling incognito' across Europe in 1976. Bowie about to record his white hot Berlin trilogy of lps, Iggy with his best two solo albums in the pipeline and freshly sprung by Bowie from being sectioned. Neither mans' get-up would look out of place in a major city today but must have raised eyebrows at the time despite them attempting to travel in mufti. David Bowie, inconceivably, was 65 last Sunday.

Lust For Life

Swiss Guards

2012-01-14T08:14:00.008Z

I'm not really Swiss. Let me explain.

A couple of friends in the real world have asked me recently why I haven't done this post and my only answer is 'it's not why I started Bagging Area', followed by 'just not got round to it really'. Maybe there's a bit more to it than that so here we go. This post does make me a little nervous.

I'm not really Swiss. Since 1997 or '98 I've sporadically made music as part of a band called Swiss Guards. Given that we've been going for fourteen or fifteen years there hasn't been more than a couple of months of action in total, partly due to geographical distances, and partly lack of time, family, work, real life. In that time we've released two albums, got a third one almost done and played four gigs. One of which was two songs at a band member's wedding. The first album (Once the Process) came out on actual compact disc, with a barcode and everything, on a small record label called Captive, based in Leicester. Mainly me and my compadre H, it's homemade and a bit of a hotch potch. The second album (One Thing After Another) was better recorded, with other musicians (Dan, Andy, Alan), had more fully realised songs but was only released digitally. Our total sales are probably somewhere near three figures. We did sell downloads to individuals on both coasts of the US though, so I think that counts as 'cracking the States'. The story of Swiss Guards is possibly another blog entirely- as in a totally different blogsite- so I won't bore you with it here. I'd be happy to give all the songs away for free via the internet. You can go to Bandcamp here if you like. In fact at a gig a couple of years back I realised you can't even give it away for free, when someone responded to my 'do you want cd of our album for free?' with 'no, not really ta.' 'Go on, it's free'. 'No'.

Two currently unreleased songs for you to download. Feel free to be polite, rude, constructively critical, or to just ignore the whole post and hope normal service is resumed soon. For the record, I do the vocals (and some guitar, though anything you can hear on the songs and is any good is definitely H). Excitingly, these may not even be the finished versions of these songs- real Swiss Guards rarities for you.

This one has guitars.

Melancholic Streak

This one is more electronic.

Heart Beating

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 42

2012-01-13T17:05:00.002Z

I picked up a compilation recently, The Best Of Fury Rockabilly 2, a collection of '20 red hot 'n' rockin' tracks featuring some of the top names on the UK rockabilly scene and beyond'. I suppose it's difficult to do rockabilly now without being labelled 'revivalists' which always seems a bit sneery, and there's some stuff on this which is straight rockabilly revivalism but there's some good stuff on it as well. Like this song by Deuces Wild, a three piece who were active in the late 80s and early 90s. I don't know if they're still going. This song is pretty good- less revivalist, more modern rockabilly, although there's an even better one by The Slapbacks which I'll post next week. I like to think these guys first got the bug when they saw The Stray Cats on Top Of The Pops as teenagers, and have been following the rockabilly thing ever since.

Radiation Ranch

You Got Me Going

2012-01-13T08:23:00.003Z

I've just realised I've stumbled into a series of themed posts this week, featuring mainly bands that have the definite article before their name- The La's, The Stairs, The Aloof, The Ramrods, The Wake. It's heck of a concept for a series isn't it? Today's 'The' band is The Chi-lites, and a girl who's got them going stoned out of their minds. I first heard this song covered by The Jam, a version I really like, but you can hear Bruce and Rick huffing a bit as they struggle with Paul's newfound love of soul. This is the original.

Stoned Out Of My Mind

Anyone Reprise

2012-01-12T20:05:00.000Z

A while back I posted a youtube link to Jessica Brown Findlay singing Irma Thomas' Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand) from Charlie Brooker's excellent TV series Black Mirror (technology and its attendant madness was the overall theme). Jessica's beautifully sung cover version was the centrepiece of episode 2, 15 Million Merits. A different youtube uploader (Paulosham2) has since put together a cleaned up version- no voices from the show, intro and fade out sorted neatly, very nice job.

Does anyone fancy an mp3?
Does anyone fancy JBF?

Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand)

No Forbidding Allowed

2012-01-12T18:55:00.002Z

Mentioning the Situationists earlier reminded me of them- not that I know a great deal about them- and how they've been a part of 'music' since the 60s, with those riots in Paris in 1968 and the whole 60s subculture, Malcolm McLaren, Sex Pistols, punk's sloganeering generally, The Stone Roses and elsewhere. Greil Marcus does this sort of thing better than me and at far greater length. The slogans and graffiti have been evident over the last few years with the various protests, not least the Occupy Movement and also with silly old Banksy. Still, Situationist slogans can be pretty good even if they read more like something you'd buy on a T-shirt in Top Shop now than an actual call for change.

Be realistic- demand the impossible
Underneath the paving stones, the beach
No freedom for the enemies of freedom
Only the truth is revolutionary
Speechmaking is counter-revolutionary
Millionaires of the world unite- the wind is turning
The golden age was when gold didn't reign
Are you a consumer or a participant?
Going through the motions kills emotions
We demand games with great seriousness
When examined, answer with questions
Unbutton your mind as often as you unbutton your fly
Those who lack imagination cannot imagine what is lacking
Abolish copyright; sound structures belong to everyone
This concerns everyone
When the last sociologist is hung with the guts of the last bureaucrat, will we still have 'problems'?
You may only be 25 but your Trade Union dates from the last century
The boss needs you, you don't need the boss
Let's not change bosses, let's change life
Run, the old world is behind you
No replastering, the structure is rotten
Boredom is counter-revolutionary

Yeah, well, like, whatevs.

Wake Up

2012-01-12T08:28:00.000Z

Some old Factory music for Thursday from Glasgow's The Wake. It's against some kind of internet law to type the words The Wake without mentioning that Bobby Gillespie was a member (leaving in 1983). The Wake signed to Factory after Rob Gretton heard them, recorded at Stockport's Strawberry Studio (a Factory hangout), toured with New Order and released several singles and two albums through either Factory or Factory Benelux. Eventually they got fed up at Factory and left for Sarah Records splitting in the mid 90s. The Wake re-woke in 2009 and have an album scheduled for this year. There was a gig in Brussels in December 2009 with former Factory bands Section 25 and A Certain Ratio which sounds like the early 80s in a nutshell, but probably with fewer raincoats and less Situationism. This was a single in 1984, archetypal in it's own way, and has Durutti Column man Vini Reilly on piano. Rather nice really.

Talk About The Past

Ghost Twang

2012-01-11T08:22:00.004Z

There were thousands of instrumental rock 'n' roll groups in the US during the 50s and 60s. The Ramrods from Connecticut had a hit with a cover of (Ghost) Riders In The Sky, first a hit for Vaughan Monroe in 1949 but maybe best known to us in its Johnny Cash version. This instrumental cover has the twang and those Ramrods bend the strings to spooky and rockin' effect.

(Ghost) Riders In The Sky

One Night Stand

2012-01-10T08:14:00.001Z

Can't believe I've not posted anything by The Aloof before. This remix is a stunner- Ashley Beedle's thirteen minute take on their One Night Stand from 1996. The instrumentation (dramatic and sweeping strings, tabla, the kitchen sink) is good enough on it's own but taken with singer Ricky Barrow's extraordinary voice (and self loathing of the one night stand) it's almost too much for one record to contain. The Aloof contained two Sabres Of Paradise and one Red Snapper (which sounds a bit like an alternative, clubby version of the twelve days of Christmas).

One Night Stand (The Long Night and The Samba)

Magic Bus, La

2012-01-09T08:35:00.002Z

While we're visiting the cosmic Merseyside area here's The Stairs from 1991 and their none-more-1962-r'n'b song Weed Bus. Led by Edgar Summertyme (who'd pop up in a version of The La's), he's also played with Paul Weller, Johnny Marr and St Etienne as well as releasing some crooning lps as Edgar 'Jones' Jones. For authenticity's sake The Stairs recorded in mono. While stoned.

Weed Bus

Chatham Pocket

2012-01-08T22:22:00.005Z

This came out as a freebie some time ago but I've only just got around to listening to it (I wrote some time ago when this post was first published, see below)- a taster for a new record by Billy Childish's latest other band The Vermin Poets (see below also). Chatham Pocket is a rocking guitar led instrumental and will go very nicely on your latest compilation cd or mixtape or playlist. A Chatham Pocket is, apparently, slang for the internal cavity where drugs can be hidden. Nice.

Edit: actually they're now called the Spartan Dreggs.
Another edit: Dunno what Blogger's playing at but this post has re-popped up tonight, without me asking it too. So I've put the link back up. It was in Weatherall's 6 Mix show last week as well. Spooky.

Chatham Pocket

The Melody Always Finds Me

2012-01-08T08:29:00.002Z

I remember buying the 12" of Timeless Melody by The La's, rushing home by bus, and dropping the needle onto the groove and being dumbstruck by it. Its sheer brilliance, the perfect guitar pop song, those clanging chords, a song about being in love with the song. Funny really because as everyone knows the band hated it and the album it came off and the proper fans had to hate it too. We didn't really have anything else to go off though so the badmouthing of the album was a bit odd when it all sounded so good. I saw them in Liverpool some time later and the songs were the same but different- rougher, rawer, all wrapped up in those chewy Scouse vowel sounds. This version is from a 1990 BBC session (for Bob Harris I think) and it's, y'know, the same song but different enough for you to prick your ears up and begin to understand what the fuss with the album was all about. I'm not going to describe it- listen to it and see. Whether this version matches the sound that only Lee Mavers can hear when he hears his band in his head I don't know. There's another version here on Youtube, from an acetate of the first album that was withdrawn. Many of the aficionados reckon this is the one. I think they could be right. There's probably other versions out there. The internet seems to have been partly invented for La's fans to share alternate versions of those dozen songs off that one single album. Craig at Plain Or Pan once posted twenty two different versions of There She Goes. I still don't know which is the best. Possibly the John Leckie one. Possibly not.

This is Timeless Melody, without doubt the best version of this song released back in that week in 1990.

Timeless Melody (BBC Session 1990)

Weatherall Mix Roundup 4

2012-01-07T10:02:00.000Z

Just the one mix in this post- not really a round-up is it? You can get an Andrew Weatherall mix here at Soundcloud (download it for free), a promo he's done for playing in Australia this month. Lots of Saturday night disco in this one.

Let's Do Rocksteady

2012-01-07T08:07:00.002Z

Saturday morning- and wasn't that was a long week, especially as it was only four working days long. The drive to work has been grim; pitch black, blowing a gale and sheeting down. No one wanting to be back at work. Decorations and trees disappearing. As Davy has noted we need reasons to be cheerful. Thankfully few things can lift the January gloom quite like the life affirming blast of a Two Tone single, in this case from The Bodysnatchers. The three Mod girls in the picture, photographed in 1980 probably scaring the shit out of younger kids like me, agree.

Let's Do Rocksteady

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 41

2012-01-06T17:07:00.000Z

A few weeks back I posted The Cramps cover version of Love Me. Here's the original by The Phantom. It's one of the great rockabilly singles, cut in one take in 1958, mad rocking guitars and Jerry Lott's ramshackle vocal. Chaotic, loose, energetic rockabilly.

Love Me

Stop And Listen...

2012-01-06T08:37:00.002Z

...to The Shag. Milwaukee's Shag with this cracking 1967 fuzz riff garage band, go-go dancing 45. The Shag was, apparently, the name of dozens of bands in the US in the sixties but only Milwaukee's Shag recorded this nugget.

Stop And Listen

Sabres

2012-01-05T08:00:00.002Z

Also from Mr Weatherall's 6 Mix show the other night, Haysi Fantayzee's seven minute dub-pop song The Sabres Of Paradise, from 1982. Haysi Fantayzee are best known for the A-side hit John Wayne Is Big Leggy (which coincidentally I was talking to someone about on New Year's Eve. You can't say I don't know how to have fun at an NYE party) and for one half of them being Jeremy Healy, 90s club dj and 'face' (and several other less complimentary words according to a friend of mine). Healy took the phrase Sabres Of Paradise from a novel about Cossacks by Lesley Blanche, which a different friend gave me a copy of about fifteen years ago, which I still haven't read. Weatherall took the name from the record, and the book, for a group and a record label. Got all of that?

Top song by the way.

The Sabres Of Paradise

These Are Not The Last Days

2012-01-04T08:48:00.001Z

Towards the end of his New Year's Day Vinyl Only 6 Mix show Andrew Weatherall played two corkers, one a krauty song by The Early Years and the other this- Love Performance by Australian band Total Control. Very post-punk, some Martin Rev, some Wire, very Joy Divison but with keyboards all over it as well as guitars and very good too. You can get the album Henge Beat on vinyl from Iron Lung Records or as a download from Bandcamp.

Love Performance

Colder Music

2012-01-03T08:18:00.002Z

One to blow those post New Year/back to work cobwebs away- this came out in 2006 which seems pretty recent but frighteningly is six years ago. Colder was the name for Marc Nguyen Tan, a French DJ, remixer and graphic designer who made some very post-punk influenced dance music. This was one of his best tunes- To The Music- remixed here by Optimo (Espacio) which means the beats are that little bit crisper, the bass that little bit tauter, it all goes a bit mad around the three minute thirty mark and increasingly mad thereafter. Blinding.

To The Music [Optimo (Espacio) Remix]

Streets Of Calcutta

2012-01-02T08:32:00.001Z

Back to work tomorrow. INSET. Ho hum.

I played this at some point on NYE. How funky is this?
Very funky.

Streets Of Calcutta

Two Today

2012-01-01T09:26:00.000Z

Bagging Area is two years old today. Thanks to everyone who comes here and takes the time to read my piffle and special thanks to those who leave comments, frequently (you know who you are, as they used to say) or infrequently- it's the comments that make it worthwhile really. Otherwise it's just me blathering into the internet wind. Mrs Swiss says she prefers reading the comments to my posts.

Let's see if I can keep this going into 2013. The song by is The Charlatans (or Charlatans UK if you're an American reader) and one of their most successful moments where, with The Chemical Brothers' assistance, they married a Stonesy shuffle and piano to a housey undercarriage and Tim's stream-of-consciousness lyrics.

One To Another

Out With The Old

2011-12-31T17:42:00.000Z

Whatever you're doing tonight you could do worse than letting this man provide you with some musical accompaniment. Here is an hour's worth of Andrew Weatherall, his Hogmanay mix for BBC 6 Mix this time last year, no tracklist I'm afraid. Have a good evening, don't overdo it. You'll regret it in the morning. I usually do.

Andrew Weatherall Hogmanay 6 Mix 2010

Wonder Where I'm Bound?

2011-12-31T08:47:00.004Z

...is as good a question for New Year's Eve as any. It's also the title of Dion's 'great lost' 1969 album. The Wanderer and Runaround Sue pop star recorded this album of folk blues, acoustic songs, folk rock and full-on electric blues. It's got its moments but is also a bit of a 'chuck everything against the wall and see what sticks' record and, surprise surprise, it bombed. The song here is Now, with a great Dylanesque chorus- 'No-one knows better than I how you feel'.

As for the question in the title and 2012- who knows? More of the same I reckon.

Now

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 40

2011-12-30T17:49:00.001Z

Is it Friday? It is Friday. Then there must be rockabilly. Chuck Barr can't decide whether to 'stroll with Susie' or 'rock with Mary Lou'. Decisions, decisions...

Susie Or Mary Lou?

The World According To Weatherall

2011-12-30T07:59:00.000Z

Another early Andrew Weatherall remix, this time of club boy/girl duo Sly and Lovechild from 1990. Does a similar thing to yesterday's S'Express remix, very nicely and very lengthily.

The World According To...Weatherall

I'm Inside Free Enterprise

2011-12-29T08:50:00.000Z

The DMCA don't knock off for Christmas do they? My Kurt Vile and Hollie Cook posts have both been hit.

In the Trafford Centre today (very, very busy), in HMV (also very, very busy) with daughter ET looking for the Jessie J album and, Lord help us, the One Direction single (both for her I hasten to add) this Public Image Ltd song came on and it sounded like a) the best song in the world at that particular moment and b) a witty and appropriate comment on the madness of the post-Christmas sales.

This Is Not A Love Song

Picture is inaccurate- Wobble had left by this point.

Find 'Em, Fool 'Em, Weatherall 'Em

2011-12-29T08:45:00.002Z

I'm not sure anything qualifies as 'rare' in the internet age but this is a lesser known (or lesser heard) Andrew Weatherall remix from 1991, wherein our hero takes S'Expresses disco house and stretches it out over up to eight minutes.

Find 'Em, Fool 'Em, Forget 'Em (The Eighth Hour Mix)

Weatherall And The End Of The World

2011-12-28T21:11:00.001Z

This one I missed and maybe you did too- an Andrew Weatherall and Ivan Smagghe playlist, each choosing the last five records they'd play in the face of the apocalypse. To listen only here.

Wooden Shjips Versus Peaking Lights

2011-12-28T10:49:00.000Z

Soundcloud have another free download for you here, Lights Out by Wooden Shjips (San Franciscan long haired drone rockers) remixed by Peaking Lights (husband and wife psychedelic dub via a Fisher Price mixing desk). Yummy.

Please Allow Me To Introduce Myself

2011-12-28T08:36:00.000Z

Here's one for that curious cover versions compilation/playlist you've been meaning to make- Sandie Shaw doing Sympathy For The Devil in 1969. Crazed and frantic, it's a million miles from the Eurovision stuff of two years before and the Smiths collaboration of the mid 80s. The album, Reviewing The Situation, also has a fair stab at Led Zeppelin's Your Time Is Gonna Come and a Donovan cover but this is the WTF? moment, if you'll excuse the young persons slang.

Sympathy For The Devil

Free Johnny

2011-12-27T23:12:00.000Z

Just found this, a few days too late but never mind- Johnny Marr has resurrected The Healers and re-started them with this free download over at Soundcloud, a very Christmassy instrumental called, wait for it, Free Christmas.

Post Christmas Post

2011-12-27T08:49:00.003Z

Pfffft. Phew.
It's very nice to spend a few days of enforced isolation with family doing little but eating and drinking but there's a bit of a sense of relief when it's all over as well, at least at not eating every hour or so just because there's a load of food to be eaten. Having said that we're off to a family gathering today where inevitably there will be more food and more drinking. Here's some very unfestive reggae from Hollie Cook, who is the daughter of ex- Sex Pistol Paul Cook and who spent some time in the reformed Slits on keys and backing vocals. Nice little uptempo Lover's Rock tune this, think the album might be worth having a look at.

Body Beat

In The Drunk Tank

2011-12-24T16:36:00.001Z

It's become a cliche but the only Christmas song that's out in the popular consciousness, is actually good and can be listened to on repeat is The Pogues number 2 single Fairytale Of New York. It's beautiful, a mixture of rawness and romance. The version posted here is an earlier one than the released A-side, an accordian intro, different lyrics and arrangement and Cait O'Riordan in the Kirsty MacColl role. Whatever you're doing tonight and tomorrow, have a good one. Happy Christmas!

Fairytale Of New York (version)

She Is The Poet's Dream

2011-12-24T08:29:00.000Z

Judging by the stats there's no-one reading this at the moment- I suppose there's shopping to be done, guest rooms to prepare, all the Christmas malarkey, so it doesn't really matter what I post. This came up yesterday on random and sounded good. Pete Molinari, Medway singer-songwriter, sharp dressed man, Bob Dylan and Patsy Cline comparisons ahoy, doing Wild Billy Childish's The Poet's Dream for a B-side some time back, a lovely tribute to his muse. Sing it to your loved one this Christmas and see where it gets you. I heard a while back that Pete has done some demos with Bagging Area's favourite Andrew Weatherall. Here's hoping we get to hear them soon.

The Poet's Dream

Too Late For My End Of Year List Post But This Is A Bit Of A Revelation

2011-12-23T19:31:00.000Z

Looks like the good folk at Piccadilly Records got it right- 936 by husband and wife team Peaking Lights is stunning and is now at the top of my post-Christmas shopping list 'cos I've got to get this on vinyl. Home made sounding, tape deck technology, analogue synths, massive speaker rattling dub basslines, and the sunniest splashes of psychedelia and sing-song vocals. Go get it, it sounds great.

All The Sun That Shines

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 39

2011-12-23T17:21:00.000Z

Yes, that is a rockabilly Barbie.

Jimmy Witter warning all and sundry to stay away from his girl, over the most rudimentary backing and least produced song you're going to hear tonight. The song's none the worse for it either.

If You Love My Woman

Bagging Area End Of Year Annual Review #2

2011-12-23T06:33:00.004Z

All the proper blogs have end of year reviews and lists and I did one last year so here goes again...

I really don't think I can offer any broad, balanced or authoritative review of new music. I read Drew's list and crumbled, voted in Song, By Toad's list and not for the right kind of artists, read other bloggers lists and realise how out of touch I am. This is partly financial- I just haven't had the money this year to buy loads of new records (albums, singles, e.p.s, vinyl, cds, shellac, any format). I don't have the time/concentration span to listen to new albums all the way through anymore and I don't want to just make a list of my favourite songs of the year because I fear it'd stop at around number 17. I'm going to try to sum up my 2011, the music I've listened to that's been released this year, in some spurious categories I've invented for this post. My favourites of the year rather than an objective 'best of'.

Best Andrew Weatherall Remix Of 2011

My favourite category and a fistful of career highlights from Mr Weatherall who has been on fire for two or three years now. The contenders include; DJ Harvey 'Gunship' (Weatherall Dub), Alice Gold 'Runaway Love' (Weatherall Dub)- one of the most popular tracks/posts here at Bagging Area this year-, The Shoes 'Cliche' (Weatherall Remix), and the recent Cut Copy 'Sun God' (Weatherall Remix). Recently Weatherall remixed Soft Rocks 'We Hunt Buffalo Now' turning it into a glam-rockabilly monster, but it's the runner up I'm afraid, as the winner has to be Toddla T and Roots Manuva's 'Watch Me Dance' (Weatherall Remix), a massive slice of dub disco, my song of the year and the song that soundtracked us driving around France this summer, while England burned. The 12" copies of this record burned also, in that factory. The moment when civil disobedience went way too far.

Best Album I Bought As A Result Of Listening To Andrew Weatherall On His BBC 6 Mix Radio Show

From the morass of stuff Weatherall plays on his irregular radio show I got two standout albums, completely different from each other and I love both. One is the synthy, krautesque, heady and melodic Here Come The Warm Digits by The Warm Digits which I thoroughly recommend, kind of like a less noisy, less headsplitting Fuck Buttons. The other was the 60s garage psyche of The People's Temple, again highly recommended.

Best Drone-Rock Kraut Inspired Fuzzed-up Guitar Album

Two way split between Moon Duo's Mazes and Wooden Shjips' West. Same album really. Same band (or very similar). Lovely. Repetitive but lovely.

Best 'What Do We Call This Music Cos I Don't Think You Can Dance To It?' Dance Music

Two winners here- the Massive Attack v Burial 12" was very good, especially the Paradise Circus side. Death In Vegas' Trans-Love Energies is dark, scary and very absorbing. Jamie Xx's single was good but I find his/their stuff easier to admire than to love.

Best Neo- Balearic Records

Thanks to Nolan Micron at Castles In Space I loved Free School's Lemon single, especially the Time And Space Remix. Back in the spring Gatto Fritto's full length debut album had me skipping around the house. Ace both. DJ Harvey's Locusolus was chock full of electronic delights as well.

Best British Guitar Stuff

I wasn't knocked out by the album but Arctic Monkeys recorded the best song this year that expertly spliced peak period Bunnymen with peak period New Order- That's Where You're Wrong, a great song. The Horrors Skying has been played a lot, and their song Still Life is a contender for something or other, although at times those early Simple Minds keyboards are a little too much (I know, I should like Simple Minds early stuff, but I don't OK?). Despite their generic, derivative, two chord indie fuzz album being generic and derivative I can't dislike The Vaccines debut album. It's good to singalong to in the car (sounds like a very Dad thing to say).

Best Half Man Half Biscuit Album

That would be 90 Bisodol (Crimond). A little underwhelming at first but it's wormed it's way in, what with Iceland, Tommy Walsh's eco house, the Gok Wan acolytes, the Duke of Westminster and his good lady wife, Razor Ruddock, so-called soccer sofas on so-called soccer Saturdays, the bands Curry Night and TBA (they do two sets and take requests, 'play one the drummer knows'), jigsaws of Nazi war criminals and much, much more. And you can phone up about the much, much more. Nigel did so and they lied to him on their poster.

Best Billy Childish Record

The Spartan Dreggs, which added some 60s whimsy to the mod/garage Childishness.

Best US Garage Rock Record

Kid Congo Powers and The Pink Monkey Birds album, Gorilla Rose, was good. The Black Keys El Camino is pretty rocking too, especially the album opener Lonely Boy, if you like that guitar-drums duo thing. Similarly, I loved much of Cults debut album not that it's garage rock. The Dirtbombs Party Store, guitar covers of Detroit techno was hit and miss but when it was good, it was very good.

The Rest

Lykke Li's Wounded Rhymes, played a lot earlier in the year and again more recently. Jimmy Cliff's Sacred Fire e.p. with it's Guns Of Brixton cover version, available in green vinyl. I really liked Discodeine's collaboration with Jarvis Cocker Synchronise, though the rest of the album didn't grab me as much. And despite all the internet grumbles and gripes Lana Del Rey's Video Games got me in the end as well.

Best Records (Or More Likely Downloads) That People Who Don't Go On Music Blogs Bought

A while back daughter Eliza told me 'When I go in other peoples' cars their Mums and Dads play pop songs on the radio or Now albums. We just listen to old music by weird people'. Or was it weird music by old people? Either way she may have a point. For the record I have very much liked Beyonce's Countdown, the more recent Cher lloyd single (I know, I know) and eventually Rhianna's We Found Love. Eliza's gone for Professor Green's Read All About It and Jessie J's Pricetag (kerching, kerching). I think she likes Cher Lloyd too, so at least we agree on something.

I know I should've heard the PJ Harvey album. I haven't. Therefore I can't offer my opinion on it. Peaking Lights 936 is Piccadilly Records album of the year; their opinion is always worth bearing in mind, and I will go looking for this soon.

I think that's it for what it's worth. I may have forgotten something. I definitely missed things that other people have rated and raved about. This was the record of my year. It'll only be up for a little while seeing as the physical copies got melted and it was only available as a download.

Watch Me Dance (Andrew Weatherall Remix)

Well I Wish I Was Drunk In Havana, I Wish I Was At The Mardi Gras

2011-12-22T07:35:00.001Z

Joe Strummer 21 August 1952- 22 December 2002.
Gone but not forgotten.

From the soundtrack to the film Walker-

Tennessee Rain

Vile Stuff

2011-12-21T08:36:00.000Z

Kurt Vile's album Smoke Ring For My Halo is getting in all the end of year lists. I haven't got it. I got an earlier one, Constant Hitmaker, but just haven't got around to the new one, partly due to financial constraints. Despite his long hair, slacker, acoustic troubadour image there's quite a bit of wit and intelligence at work, along with some indie-folkiness and some of that big mid-West US rock music. S'alright really but I can't get that excited about it.

Don't Get Cute

Stay With Me

2011-12-20T16:31:00.001Z

Sharon Tandy, who came to London from South Africa in 1964, with one of those great 60s blue-eyed soul songs which seem to have been ten-a-penny in 1967. Dusty-esque.

Stay With Me

On The Way To Oslo It Started To Snow

2011-12-20T08:06:00.000Z

A perfectly formed little Christmas themed song from Low.

Just Like Christmas

It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas

2011-12-19T08:43:00.000Z

Half Man Half Biscuit, who have been featured here at Bagging Area several times before, haven't contributed too much to the Christmas songbook but this is a noble effort. They were in sparkling form at the Ritz on Saturday night, especially in their choice of cover version for the encore- Tragedy (yes, that Tragedy, the Bee Gees song made famous by Steps) and during Nigel Blackwell's extended and improvised spoken section during 24 Hour Garage People, although he missed out asking for two Scotch eggs and a jar of Marmite. He played the caravan guitar as well.

It's Cliched To Be Cynical At Christmas

Anyone

2011-12-18T19:27:00.001Z

If you've been enjoying Charlie Brooker's Black Mirror series on Sunday nights you might want to go over to this youtube page where someone has uploaded actress Jessica Brown Findlay singing on last week's 15 Million Merits episode. I'd be quick as well, as Channel 4 have shut down other youtube pages with the song on. Anyone Who Knows What Love Is (Will Understand) was originally recorded by Irma Thomas and as such is close to untouchable but Jessica gives it a rather good go.

Dear Santa...

2011-12-18T13:30:00.003Z

...have you seen these cherry red Dr Martens brothel creepers?

We've bought the tree today so we'll have a Christmas song to get us feeling all festive. Billy Childish was asked to record a Christmas single a year or two ago, which led to the barnstorming Christmas 1979 7", posted here last Christmas. He also went one better and recorded a whole album of garage Christmas tunes. This one uses The Who's A Quick One mini-opera and is guaranteed to get a Christmas party rocking.

A Quick One (Pete Townsend's Christmas)

A Gas

2011-12-18T08:26:00.000Z

Last weekend I posted We Wanna Live by early 90s Acid Jazz combo Sandals. In the comments box reader Anto and I agreed that their 12" A Profound Gas was their best record. I see no reason to change that decision now. The hippy/beatnik lyrics in particular are a profound gas.

A Profound Gas

Sun God- Weatherall's Back

2011-12-17T08:31:00.001Z

Ctel's already tipped people off about this over at Acid Ted, but just in case you missed it here's a very nice early Christmas present- Andrew Weatherall's remix of Sun God by Australia's Cut Copy. It's available to download, nearly nine minutes long, and has the early 90s splashed all over it. T'riffic, as Ray Wilkins might say if he were an ex-clubber and not an ex-footballer.

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 38

2011-12-16T16:25:00.001Z

Rockabilly is really pretty limited isn't it? I mean you've got a voice, a guitar (or two), bass (stand up or electric) and some drums. But so many great records came from that limited set-up, with lots of technically limited recording techniques in the early days, and lots of modern bands who recreate it with its limitations.

Grant Grieves' Four In The Floor, a tale of drink and drinking, stretches the sound out a bit and takes it a little further down the road and though it sounds like a 50s recording this wasn't recorded until 1969, which maybe explains it.

Four In The Floor

Yesterday I Got A Letter

2011-12-16T08:17:00.005Z

The evergreat Jimmy Cliff and his 1970 song Vietnam, with a soldier getting ready to come home, his sweetheart with 'golden lips as sweet as cherries' and then his mother receiving the telegram giving the news of his death. Sorry if that spoilt the ending for you. I'm pretty sure New Order had been listening to this when they recorded Love Vigilantes (and they covered it at some point in the late 90s).

Vietnam

Jimmy's new e.p, Sacred Fire, recorded with Tim Armstrong and including two versions of his cover of Guns Of Brixton (posted here in September) and a cover of Rancid's Ruby Soho among its five songs is out now and you should get it. Emusic have it here for download if you're a member though you (and I) should really go looking for a copy we can actually hold in our sweaty mitts.

Boxing Clever

2011-12-15T08:11:00.001Z

Yesterday's first gig postees JoBoxers with their second single, the still rather wonderful Just Got Lucky, a much poppier affair than Boxerbeat. I seem to remember the sleeve (above) got us teenage boys quite interested at the time. Innocent times- teenagers today can see anything they want and more on their phones, back then we got excited about a few pairs of breasts on a 7" sleeve.

Just Got Lucky

First Gig

2011-12-14T08:52:00.007Z

The first gig I ever went to was Madness at the Apollo, which is pretty good as first gigs go. This was 1982 or '83. The place was half full of schoolkids and teenagers, which I imagine at the time must have pissed off Madness' older, skinhead following and I remember there being a large amount of threatening looking people there. We were up in the seats somewhere near the top; myself, two of my brothers (one of whom was a Madness obsessive, who can still list Madness singles chart entries and weeks on the chart), a friend and his Mum. It was exciting and in truth all a bit of a blur. Madness were introduced by Radio 1 dj Peter Powell, careered on stage and bounced for however long the gig was. It felt about ten minutes but must have been longer. Memory tells me they'd just had a number one single with House Of Fun but I don't know if this is right.

This also means though that Madness weren't the first band I saw play live- that honour falls to the support band, JoBoxers. We were entranced by them as well and their Dexys influenced, uptempo soul stomp. JoBoxers contained two former members of Subway Sect (I didn't know this until recently), an American singer called Dig Wayne (previously in a psychobilly band Buzz and The Flyers) and drummer Sean McClusky, who would go on to be a face and promoter on the London acid house scene. They looked great, played this uptempo punky-soul pop music and would have two hit singles, the debut 45 Boxerbeat (number 3 in the UK chart) and follow-up Just Got Lucky (number 6). At some level they must have made a deep impression on me-their look of boots, turn-ups, tanktops, donkey jackets and woollen coats, and flat caps not being a totally unknown look around Bagging Area Towers, although I've never worn braces over a tanktop. I'd forgotten about them until recently and rediscovering them has been fun. The early-to-mid 80s truly were a fertile time for pop music.

Boxerbeat

P.S. My good gig strike rate fell at the second hurdle. A friend could find no-one to go to Howard Jones with him, also at the Apollo. I went. That man did his chained up mime thing. Howard played his hits. Thanks Alex.

P.P.S. I've just found out (after writing this post) in a weird moment of synchronicity they've got a reissued and expanded album coming out in January 2012. More info here.

Little Post

2011-12-13T08:46:00.002Z

Little Barrie, featuring the stripped down r'n'b, garage, rockin' sounds of guitarist Barrie Cadogan, bassist Lewis Wharton and drummer Virgil Howe, sound good on shuffle mode and kick up a storm live. Barrie has been Throb's replacement in Primal Scream live and is more than capable of filling those shoes judging by the Primal Scream shows I've seen in the last few years.

How Come

Christmas Corsair

2011-12-12T16:44:00.002Z

Corsair Records are putting out a Christmas single by Casino. It's a rocking Northern Soul version of Nick Lowe's (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding, you can find it at Corsair Records (to listen) and youtube. It is very good. Bring the talc over here baby.

From the press release; Casino are renown for their trio of 21st Century neo-Northern Soul singles 'Floorshaker', 'Good Times' and 'Running On Back To You' which garnered 5 star review superlatives across a range from The Guardian to the dance press, and with airplay stretching from XFM through MTV to Radio 2.

Available to buy from 19th December.

1000

2011-12-12T08:56:00.001Z

Phew.

1000 posts.

But will this blog outlast this currency?

Swords Of A Thousand Men

Justice Tonight The Other Night

2011-12-11T07:17:00.002Z

So it turns out that while we got The Stone Roses, London got Paul Simonon singing Guns Of Brixton and playing Brand New Cadillac, along with Wylie and The Farm, and Primal Scream chucked in as well. Good stuff.

Train In Vain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C7XeTfCjCjA&feature=related

Guns Of Brixton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qFWY18MQuzQ&feature=related

Another Something For The Weekend Sir?

2011-12-10T17:00:00.000Z

From the Vintage Sex Songs compilation, Blind Boy Fuller (1907-1941) celebrates the sweet honey hole. Whatever can he mean?

Sweet Honey Hole

We Wanna Live

2011-12-10T08:00:00.000Z

I always liked the post-acid house crossed with beat poetry records made by Sandals back in the early 1990s. Signed to Acid Jazz, produced at different times by the non-Weatherall parts of Sabres Of Paradise and one half of Leftfield, and over the twelve odd minutes of this head stomp of a single remixed by DSS, who if I'm not mistaken were The Disco Evangelists, a pseudonym for David Holmes. That list of names should not hide the fact this is an ace record.

We Wanna Live (DSS remix)

The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 37

2011-12-09T16:47:00.000Z

It's 1959, it's Ronnie Allen (not pictured), and good golly Molly, he's a juvenile delinquent.

Juvenile Delinquent

Hot On The Heels Of Love

2011-12-09T08:46:00.000Z

If you think Throbbing Gristle are all industrial grind, dubious imagery, burning flesh, bodily fluids, performance art and an obsession with the dark side of humanity and inhumanity while challenging society's preconceptions and conventions with distorted tape-loops and buckets of noise then you haven't heard proto-acid-disco-techno masterpiece Hot On The Heels Of Love.

Hot On The Heels Of Love

Lipstick

2011-12-08T08:31:00.000Z

Buzzcocks had such a sharp grasp of guitar pop music, melody and universally affecting lyrics that they'd probably have sold records if they'd been born ten years earlier, ten years later or ten years from now. I suppose the arrival of punk and DIY meant that they could just go out and do it, as this 1979 B-side shows. B-side!

Lipstick

Holmes And The Bogeyman

2011-12-07T08:08:00.000Z

David Holmes remix of yesterday's Red Snapper single, Bogeyman. Very much the sort of thing Holmes was doing in the late 90s, LSD references and everything.

Bogeyman (David Holmes Mix)

Bogeyman

2011-12-06T08:58:00.001Z

It's been all guitars recently here hasn't it? How about some jazzy, dubby, breakbeaty kind of thing? Red Snapper were a trio who signed to Warp and made several meandering and laid back records combining live drums and percussion, stand-up double bass and electronic bits and bobs. This track, Bogeyman, a single from 1998 came with remixes by both David Holmes and Two Lone Swordsmen. This one spends a long time going nowhere really but does it very nicely.

Bogeyman (Two Lone Swordsmen 5 day Wonder Mix)

On The Railroad Tracks With The Gravel On Your Back

2011-12-05T08:52:00.002Z

Bill Callahan used to (and maybe still does) make music as Smog, and for a while as [Smog], and various other aliases as well I think. I bought his 2000 album Dongs Of Sevotion, partly just because I liked the title and I was listening to this type of thing back then. This song, Dress Sexy At My Funeral, is wry and slinky and worth a few minutes of your Monday.

Dress Sexy At My Funeral