There are several versions of Orbital's beautiful Halcyon- the one here, the lp version, is a minute or two shorter than the original 12" mix (from the Radiccio single). Let's not be too fussy- I'll take any of the versions, they're all superb. The Halcyon + On + On version is little more upbeat, more up front, less reflective, less sad even than the Radiccio one. It's got a vocal sample, played backwards, from Opus III's It's A Fine Day (sung by Kirsty Hawkshaw). Live the Hartnoll Brothers like to chuck in Belinda Carlisle or Bon Jovi, and even the dreaded Darkness.
I know nothing about Man Power apart from that in one or two small corners of the internet he/they are causing a small stir- and I'm not sure I want to know any more. The music is enough- deep, dark, pumping techno-house, three examples of which can be watched below. Lovely, beguiling repetitive rhythms. Bumpity-bumpity-bump. The visuals are a mixture of hypnotic, bewildering and unsettling.
Drew reckons giving up smoking has affected my hormones, what with the Dot Allison and Betty Blue posts over the course of last week. I don't know if he's right but I thought I'd post this picture of celebrity shoplifter Winona Ryder anyway.
That Dot Allison album I mentioned (Pioneer, out December last year- did it get any press at all?) is a belter- as well as the Keith Tenniswood song I put up a few days ago there are several others that are as good as anything she's done since the late 90s. This one, dance-pop co-written with Jagz Kooner (Sabres, Aloof), has a killer chorus and makes me throw my hands up in the air involuntarily, and wave them like I just don't care.
(I'm in this shot at Parr Hall, somewhere slightly right and above of Ian Brown's hand. You might be able to spot me, the one with his arms in the air.)
I went to see Shane Meadows' film of The Stone Roses re-union on Thursday night. Meadows has himself described it as a love-letter to the band and it's hard to disagree. It's very, very well done, and fantastically put together. The standout moment for me was the section in the middle showing the gig at Warrington's Parr Hall on 22nd of May last year- the footage of band and audience is incredible, gave me goosebumps in fact- and the clips of people running to try to get wristbands are very funny. One man being persued by a small daughter struggling to keep up with him shouting 'go on Dad!' is brilliant. There is some fascinating footage c.1982 of Ian and John on scooter rallies and some highly amusing interview footage from 1989 (some of which has been doing the bootleg/Youtube rounds for twenty years). There is a wonderful bit of the band rehearsing Waterfall in a farmhouse somewhere in Cheshire, with split screen segments showing each man playing. It is incredible and should scotch the view that Ian can't sing (and the version of Waterfall played needs to be released as a soundtrack or ripped from the dvd when it gets released). The film isn't a total love-in either- tensions are shown when Reni sets the internet ablaze with rumours that he's quit. Shane is following the band round a short European tour culminating in the gig in Amsterdam where Reni throws a strop due to malfunctioning gear and refuses to play the encore, disappearing into a people carrier. Ian takes to the stage to tell the crowd there'll be no encore and, in what could possibly not be described as tactful, informs the crowd 'what can I say? The drummer's a cunt'.
The climax is Heaton Park, the last fifteen minutes of the film- shot with multiple cameras the band swagger through a ten minute version of Fool's Gold, John Squire's guitar playing really does have to be seen and heard to be believed, Reni and Mani proving their worth as the funkiest indie-rock rhythm section and Ian walking out to the front row of the crowd, pressing flesh, borrowing a lad's camera phone to snap them and him, and generally being adored. Interspersed with the shots of the band are some helicopter shots of Heaton Park and some incredible footage of the crowd- a man on top of an ice cream van, people dancing, a teenage boy on someone's shoulders, a couple snogging, a girl twirling her shirt round her head. It's beautifully filmed and incredibly dramatic and puts The Roses right there, centre stage, as the best band of their generation.
If you don't like them, or weren't that fussed first time around, you probably won't find much here- haters gonna hate after all. But this is genuinely a brilliant piece of film making, about a man in love with a band (and many other men like him, and a lot of women too- I never really got why The Stone Roses have been portrayed as such a 'lad's band', they always seemed to have a huge female following), a man in love with a band who soundtracked his and our youth and are soundtracking his and our middle age too.
Wanda Jackson is the rockabilly queen, the First lady of Rockabilly no less, and still out treading the boards in her 80s. She released an album last year, produced by Justin Townes Earle, going back to her rockabilly and country roots, and in 2009 Oklahoma City renamed an alley in her honour- Wanda Jackson Way. Any decent Wanda compilation will be packed full of goodies- Fujiyama Mama, Riot In Cell Block 9, Funnel Of Love, Whirlpool, This Gun Don't Care, Baby Loves Him, Honey Bop... and this one...
When You're Young is one of The Jam's finest moments, with Paul Weller dispensing hard-won wisdom (from the grand old age of 22 or something, youth becoming relative the older you get) -'the world is your oyster but your future's a clam, it's got you in it's grip from before you're born, you think you're a king but you're really a pawn'. There's something about the music that's very democratic too- guitar, bass and drums all equal in the mix and the dynamics. Then the hair raising breakdown followed by 'you used to fall in love with everyone..... any guitar and any bass drum'.
The other thing about it is the video- the kids, passers-by and members of the public, all look pretty much exactly how I remember 1979-80 looking. Except without The Jam miming on a bandstand. Never saw that happen.
I saw a striped blazer just like the one Weller's wearing in this video recently, reduced but still pricey. Was tempted I have to say.
No, not Miss You by the hoary old Rolling Stones, Miss You by Liverpool psych-surgeons Clinic. This 2012 remix by Italian pairing Daniele Baldelli and DJ Rocca send the already pretty cosmic Clinic way on up there and out- spaced out on old synths and floating. 'Tranquilize' the man says, 'tranquilize'...
Since writing this morning's post I found a reference to a download only album at the end of last year called Pioneers with Dot and a whole host of electronica artists including Keith Tenniswood, Darren Emerson, Jagz Kooner and her hubby Christian Henson. It's up at emusic, iTunes and at other such digital emporia. I've not listened to anything other than this song yet which sounds very much like Keith Tenniswood in his Radioactiveman guise with Dot singing- it has got a very busy, driving bassline.
I was listening to Dot Allison's superb solo debut lp Aftermath the other day, especially the perfect single Mo' Pop which should have been a hit in every country with a chart. Then I listened to the follow up, We Are Science, which had an electro-clash flavour with some assistance from One Lone Swordsman Keith Tenniswood- some cracking songs but less satisfying as a whole album. Then I remembered I also had 2007's An Exaltation Of Larks- a much folkier affair with accordions and fiddles and acoustic guitars. Whispery and wistful music. She also released an album in 2009- Room Seven And A Half- which featured Pete Doherty and Paul Weller but I never got around to getting that one. Think I had Doherty fatigue by 2009. This was the single from An Exaltation Of Larks.
There's nothing much that's original in this post, just some internet blogging repetition. I'm pretty sure both Drew and London Lee (and probably others as well, I'd be surprised if Davy H hadn't) have blogged about the late 80s French film Betty Blue and it's beautiful star Beatrice Dalle. And maybe originality is over-rated anyway. Beatrice was the perfect poster-girl for some of us in the late 80s- that dark hair, those deep eyes and full lips, the scant clothing in the film, the life in the beach house, the descent into insanity and assaulting other girls with forks, followed by suicide. She (Betty/Beatrice) was the kind of girl we fancied like mad but were also terrified of. Helpfully an uploader at Youtube has edited some of the more unpleasant parts out and created a seven minute Hommage a Betty, a 'smooth version without the drama' although she still burns down the beach house and covers that man's car with paint.
The soundtrack by Gabriel Yared is a good listen- some of the guitar is a bit too late 80s but it has a very laid back charm. I've got the vinyl lp of this- I don't remember buying it and don't remember anyone giving it to me either. It has just appeared in my record collection at some point over the years.
Back to the playground (and the classroom) for me today. Let's start the week with a smashing mix from The Orb, featuring mainly The Orb but also Lee Perry, Madlib, Cypress Hill and Vangelis (from the Bladerunner soundtrack ...'I've seen things you people wouldn't imagine...attack ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion, C-Beams at the Tannhauser gate...'). A pretty relaxed mix all round.
Baghdad Batteries - THE ORB Interlude - MADLIB Outland's (Fountains Of Elisha Mix ) - THE ORB Africa - THE ORB Feat LEE SCRATCH PERRY Legalise It - CYPRESS HILL Fussball (Instrumental) - THE ORB You're Heard - DAEDELUS & TEEBS No Ice Age - THE ORB Feat LEE SCRATCH PERRY Majestic 6 - THE ORB UNRELEASED Congo - THE ORB Feat LEE SCRATCH PERRY Frogtime - SCREEN Moon Building Part 3 Ambient - THE ORB UNRELEASED Jahara - TEEBS Tears In The Rain - VANGELIS
There's no doubt that for $20 (even in 1983 prices) that's an interesting line up.
This was the last gig Mick Jones played with The Clash, in front of 250, 000 people. The Clash had truculently refused to play hours before their stage time but relented. There was an argument with Dave Lee Roth about the $1.5 million Van Halen were receiving and Joe insisted the organisers, including Steve Wozniak of Apple fame, pay them more or donate more to Clash approved charities. This led to a pissed off Clash taking the stage and the tensions are evident in the clips- the whole thing was recorded- although some of the tension may be internal. Joe and Mick were barely speaking, Mick and Paul rowed on and off. As a result, Mick was playing his 80 minutes on stage in the band he formed. Topper was gone too by this point, replaced by Nick Howard (who had replaced Terry Chimes/Tory Crimes). During the show Joe repeatedly abused the audience and organisers and on leaving the stage (even more pissed off that the dj began playing songs straight away, denying them an encore) the band got into a scuffle with security. During the brawl, in a last display of band unity, Paul waded in to stop Mick getting a kicking ('cos he's only a skinny bloke Mick isn't he' said Paul). Having said all this, for a band adapting their set and sound to stadiums this is top stuff. Mick, Joe and Paul are tight and the drumming is good enough. Paul looks like the coolest bassist in the world and can clearly play the thing too, without the notes panted on the fretboard like in the early days. However you look at it, it's a long way from Camden Town in 1976.
There's some variable quality clips on Youtube. The whole show is there but a lot of it has been filmed by a man watching it on video on his TV in his front room. The two below are straight from the DVD and are good quality.
There's a new Clash box set in the offing, remastered by Mick and packed in a boom box/ghetto blaster designed by Paul, with demos and extra tracks (that have been available on bootlegs for donkey's years) and accompanied by all manner of trinkets, retailing at somewhere around one hundred pounds. It is ridiculous. Yes, of course I want it.
Ash's Oh Yeah is the sound of being seventeen and in love/lust. I heard it yesterday while the sun came out and shone on us up here in the frozen north and it sounded like the summer that Tim Wheeler wrote about in the lyrics. We've just had the coldest spring since 1962 or thereabouts. I think we all need some sun.
Today is Friday. Friday means rockabilly and today Friday means payday as well. And as Carl Belew sang when covering Radney Foster, 'if I could get my hands on some f-olding money'.
It's been the 60th anniversary of Tenzing and Hillary's ascent of Everest this week. There have been a load of previously unseen photographs published some of which are pretty amazing. Does anyone still climb Everest in woolly jumpers? I hope so.
I've posted the video to Public Service Broadcasting's song Everest before, one of my favourite songs of last year. The PSB album came out recently and is well worth getting. It sounds like a proper lp and Everest is one of the standouts. The only slight letdown with it is, if you bought the earlier singles and eps, you've got almost a third of it already. But no matter- it's a winner anyway. Everest was remixed several times when it came out as a single. Here's one of them.
The Soundcloud hour long dj mix is one of the wonders of the internet age- yes, even better than clips of cats falling off pianos. An hour is a good length- it doesn't overface you like a two or three hour mix can, allows enough time for some good ebb and flow, and provides a good soundtrack to a commute/trip. The recent Weatherall British council one and the one he did for Faber, the Justin Robertson one for Gomma, the Scott Fraser machine one and the David Holmes garage rock one have all been recent Bagging Area favourites (scroll down the page, they're all there). This Weatherall one appeared in association with Manchester's Warehouse Project last December. Lap it up.
The photo is a piece of product placement for Walker Slater, manufacturer of high quality tweeds. Our model is pictured wearing a three piece grey Birds Eye herringbone with red and yellow windowpane, 'timeless style and never with a twist (the last refuge of the charlatan)'. Obviously they are also expensive so I won't be rocking one at work in the foreseeable future.
Sorry there haven't been any mp3s this week- they'll be back tomorrow. It's been one of those weeks technologywise. Don't even get me started on the topic of mobile phones.
System of Survival ‘Crash What’ Baldelli and Rocca ‘Terrapoda’ E. Project ‘Mozaik’ Blancmange ‘Title Unknown’ Clarion ‘All Over All Kinds’ Crooked Man ‘I’ll be Koving You’ Phil Kieran ‘Lose Your Love (Andrew Weatherall Remix)’ Andrew Weatherall ‘Dub We May, Sail We Must’ Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry ‘Soul Man (Ricardo Villalobos Remix)’
Pushing the boundaries of this blog a little bit further than usual, this evening is the 100th anniversary of the first performance of Stravinsky's Le Sacre Du Printemps (The Rites Of Spring). Now this is some way outside my area of expertise but let's consider the facts- this was a piece of music that deliberately set out to shock, has multiple layered patterns, polyrhythmic whatnots, pounding drums, invented a completely new strand of modern music, has been described as cubism set to music, is supposed to be played while people dance, and on its debut led to audience members fighting with each other and riots between conservatives and modernists. Take that Primal Scream.
I've no idea whether this 2010 performance is a good one or not and obviously footage and bootlegs of the original 1913 performance are hard to come by. If anyone knows of any superior versions please let me know. But as one Youtube commenter says 'God damn. Stravinsky always leaves me wondering whether I want to fuck or go blind'.
I've read a couple of unconnected references to Northside recently and I don't ignore things like that when thinking about stuff to post here. Northside haven't fared well in the long term, seen as chancers, the runts of the Madchester litter, looked down on as not being worthy of being on Factory Records. But their sparkly, jangle pop with a funky drummer backbeat isn't as bad as it's been painted. First single Shall We Take A Trip? is the one everyone remembers, with its opening chant of 'L....S....D'. Obviously it was banned by the Beeb (drug references apparently) but still made the Top 50 and bizarrely was used as the theme tune to Granada Soccer Night throughout the early 90s. By the time the album Chicken Rhythms came out in 1991 Dermo, Cliff, Michael and Paul had had an NME front cover but gone out the exit door on the other side. In between they had this cracker of a single, My Rising Star...
But the truth is this single already sounded a teensie bit cliched by the time it came out. A vastly superior version was played live by the band on the semi-legendary Madchester- The Sound Of the North documentary which bravely attempted to capture the Mancunian zeitgeist in 50 minutes, despite the refusal to play ball of The Stone Roses and the absence of other key players. Northside come in at around the five minute thirty seconds mark in this clip. It also features a youthful Stuart Maconie being ironic in Dry Bar.
I videoed this programme and we sat around with it on often. Watching it now brings everything back in huge rushes- 'shall we take a trip down memory lane?, head in the clouds in the acid rain, time means nothing I can smell the trees, chase that rainbow with the summer breeze....sing LSD, sing LSD'.
I love this picture of Diego Maradona in his Boca Juniors shirt and carpet slippers. I saw Diego Maradona play once. In the 1983-4 season United drew Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the European Cup Winner's Cup. Away in the first leg United came home two-nil down, centre back Graham Hogg diverting the ball into his own net right at the end of the game. Two weeks later Barca came to Old Trafford for a match that still stands out for me as the best game I've ever attended. We didn't have much hope of going through. Two-nil down,a Barca away goal would finish us. As well as Maradona, then ascending to 'best player in the world' status, they had mop-haired midfield maestro Bernd Schuster in their side as well. Old Trafford was crammed to the rafters, Maradona barely got a kick and Frank Stapleton and Bryan Robson scored the three goals that sent us through to the semis (a tie against Juventus, who had a team containing Boniek, Platini and Rossi amongst others. Another amazing night at the football, from when European nights were a rarity rather than an expectation). Robson left the pitch on the shoulders of the thousands of fans who poured onto the pitch at the final whistle. Not me, as my brother frequently reminds me. I didn't want to get clobbered by a copper. At the Juventus game a copper threatened to break my arm if I tried to walk down a certain gangway again. Friendly chaps the GMP.
None of which has anything to do with this song I found recently. It's one of those deeply clubby chuggers, Love From Outer Space style jobs. Very good. May wear the carpet out if played late at night in subdued lighting through some decent speakers. Headman featuring Scott Fraser and Douglas McCarthy remixed by Hardway Bros.
Back from camping- I took this photo on Saturday morning. The weather was lovely all the way through to Sunday night. Some members of our party even got a little sunburned. It's been great to get away, to sit in a field around a fire, drinking wine, chatting. There's something about getting up and being outside straight away that nullifies a hangover as well. This morning, as we were beginning to pack up, the heavens opened and didn't stop. Our car boot is currently full of one very wet tent.
I got in, unpacked some of the car, stuck BBC 6 on and this song was playing.
No d/l I'm afraid. My Boxnet bandwidth has been exceeded for May and my 4Shared account has recently been terminated due to a 'three strikes and you're out' rule over DMCA bobbins.
I'm off camping after work tonight, three nights in a field with the family and three other families in the Lake District. Weather forecast is dry enough not to cancel. Red wine and airbeds ahoy! Pop the corks and let the nippers run free. See you late Monday or Tuesday my amigos.
I found this somewhat unrehearsed but very endearing version of The Pogues with Joe doing I Fought The Law live on Irish TV back in 1987. Pogues guitarist Phil Chevron has recently been diagnosed with inoperable cancer of the head and neck- best wishes to him and his family. While I'm here, this is for SH and JG as well.
Posting that Death In Vegas song on Monday night prompted me to think that it's been ages since I posted any One Dove. So, plucking a track fairly randomly from the hard drive we get the Old Toys Mix of Transient Truth. There are half a dozen different mixes of this song, most of them by Weatherall and his Sabres Of Paradise cronies Jagz Kooner and Gary Burns. This one is a killer- 120 bpm with a deep dubby bassline, pulsing synthlines, squelches and bleeps, a bit of Dot. They used to call it Progressive House. It still sounds like progress.
I suppose part of the appeal of writing a song called Tomorrow is it will never be old will it, it will always sound like tomorrow. And tomorrow never comes. Or knows. Or dies. Or something. Liverpool's Clinic sound gleefully old but never archaic, all Velvets organ and two chord fuzz and Adrian Blackburn's nasal vocals. A much under-rated band. I saw them soundchecking once on an afternoon by accident, without their stagewear on. It took some of the magic away.
You gonna love this- Richard Burton reading Dylan Thomas's Under Milk Wood over a King Tubby dub track (all put together by The Dubwood Allstars). 7" single available here. Best thing I've heard today.
Edit- you can't buy the 7". It's out of stock. Unsurprisingly.
Justin Robertson and his Deadstock 33s are on a roll at the moment with remixes, an album, and dj sets all over the place. In this mix he 'explores the far out borders of contemporary dance music'. Free download and worth every byte. There are some cracking tunes on this.
I missed a comment left a month or so ago from a reader called J who was looking for this- Death In Vegas's Dirge (with the lovely Dot Allison on vox) remixed by dubmaster Adrian Sherwood. And though this may tip me towards the edge of the monthly bandwidth with Boxnet I'll stick it back up anyway. Dubbed out Monday nights.
Devendra Banhart, nu-hippy supremo, cropped up at Acid Ted on Friday- a most unexpected Acid Ted artist. I'm not a huge fan of Mr Banhart but I like these two songs. Forget About Him has an ace shuffly rhythm and is a cover of a Kath Bloom song.
I borrowed a Banhart album from a friend several years ago- I don't seem to have made a copy of it, not a digital one anyway. There may be a cassette somewhere (which would date it to pre-2007 for me). This song was the best one on it. I Feel Just Like A Child stays just the right side of cloying, grooving along like an acoustic T Rex....
It's my forty-third birthday today - I haven't got much to say about that really, it's just forty three- but I'm celebrating it here with a recent Weatherall mix, done for the Selector programme for The British Council, who promote British arts abroad. Sounds like a good job to have. This mix is what the word eclectic was invented for, opening with the old musical theme for Thames TV and then taking in some low key sounds, some folky tunes and some stuff from over there and yonder. Very lovely too.
1. Johnny Hawksworth – Salute To Thames 2. A Foggy Day (In London Town) – Dirk Bogarde 3. Mount Vernon Arts Lab – The Mandrake Club 4. Anthroprophh – Ende 5. The Unthanks – The Romantic Trees 6. The Durutti Column – A Room In Southport 7. Jah Wobble – Highgate 8. Belbury Poly – A Pilgrim’s Way 9. Phil Manzanera – Islands (Secret Fingers Remix) 10. The Deadstock 33s – Impatient For Your Love 11. Pye Corner Audio – November Sequence 12. Woodcraft Folk – Blok Flute 13. Sir John Betjeman – The Licorice Fields of Pontefract 14. Temples – Shelter Song Weatherall contributes 'five songs you should hear this week' to Erol Alkan's website here, taking in Charles Mingus, The Monks, The Sensational Alex Harvey Band, Mad Man Jones and The Mighty Wah! Again, eclectic- we got it.
Today, from 11 til 2, I shall be manning the book stall at Park Road Nursery's summer fair. Not exactly breaking rocks I know. And the weather forecast for M33 is for heavy rain and not hot sun. Last year the big sellers on the stall were various celebrity autobiographies in hardback (prices ranged from 30p to 50p depending on my judgement), a book on pond care and a dvd boxed set of five Steven Seagal films. But that was very much just the tip of the iceberg. The Quakers, Park Road, Sale- pop in if you're free, say hello and leave with some quality literature.
I Fought The Law is one of the great rock 'n' roll songs, written by Sonny Curtis and The Crickets. I'm not sure The Bobby Fuller Four's version has been bettered- as Paul Simonon pointed out, it's the way those guitar chords are so 'light and feathery'. I played this at a mate's wedding and it went down a storm. Bobby Fuller met a very sticky end, found dead in his car with foul play suspected though the verdict was suicide.
The Clash's version is superb- from Topper's opening salvo through to Joe's impassioned delivery. The breakdown on the line 'robbing people with a -dum, dum, blum, blum, blum, blum- six gun' is especially thrilling. This live version is The Clash at their most black-clad glorious. Best bit- when the three man front line step up to the mics in sync to bawl out the opening line.
It's been covered endlessly, the 60s girl group version by The She Trinity being one of my favourites ('He fought the law and the law won'). Most recently Johnny Marr has been encoring with it and doing it very well too. As evidenced here in San Francisco, along with fellow former Wythenshawe resident Billy Duffy.
I said to Drew in the pub on Tuesday night (during our top level blog summit) that I didn't know how much longer I can keep this Friday night series going. I think I'm close to exhausting my rockabilly goldmine. This song featured here before, three years ago, in the original Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night series (number 3 fact fans). It is the greatest rockabilly song in the world. It is just over two minutes of 1950s perfection. It is about leaving a girl in Kansas City and not being able to eat or sleep. It has a stupendously great riff. It is Wayne Walker and frankly, when it is playing, it is all you need.
Tom Courtenay has just said to Pattie Boyd, while walking Thameside in the rain in 1966, 'Yeah, so actually my favourite way of getting kicks is to go down town and hustle chicks', and Pattie has replied 'You what pal?' Leaving Tom to dig his way out of the whole Beaver Patrol problem.
There's a grebo reunion package tour about to do the rounds- Jesus Jones, The Wonderstuff and Pop Will Eat Itself. Steady, don't rush off to Ticketmaster all at once. If Jesus Jones were playing in our back garden I'd pull the blinds down and turn up the TV, and The Wonderstuff would probably turn the bar into a giant magnet but I'd quite enjoy PWEI. I saw them in my first term as a student at Liverpool University and they were dead good fun. I'm sure I'm not the only one who didn't know Beaver Patrol was a cover until much later as well (Shadows Of Knight, 60s nugget band). Beaver Patrol is of course infantile, purile and sexist. At the gig, autumn '88, I was talking to a grebo girl I quite fancied. I was wearing a bandanna (around my head) and a white shirt with a waistcoat. Thought I was cutting quite a dash. I only realised later that several times I'd referred to PWEI's Clint as Clive. Although maybe it was the bandanna that damaged my chances more.
Sir Joe of Strummerville is a regular visitor to these pages. This song shuffled up on the journey home the other day. Sleepwalk is almost the epitome of Joe's post-Clash, late 80s, pre-Mescaleros, wilderness years- off the flawed Earthquake Weather album; no frantic Strummered electric guitars, no rama-lama, just Joe, some acoustic guitars, some Latin percussion and a beaten down, rueful vocal. It is easily the best thing off the album and shows Joe could do low-key and reflective as well as anyone else.
Prince Fatty has dubbed out Tim Burgess in very fine style. I don't know if this has been released, possibly for Record Shop Day (?) but if it hasn't it should be. Summer bottled in a Soundcloud file.
I was in Beatnik Shop in Altrincham on Saturday afternoon chatting with one of the men who run it (who it turns out was on the same PGCE course as me, twenty years ago), and a Serge Gainsbourg album was playing (Histoire De Melody Nelson which I haven't heard before, shocking admission I know) and as the final song played out over its seven and a bit minutes I was struck by how much of it David Holmes pilfered for Don't Die Just Yet. I mean, I like David Holmes, a lot of his stuff is great, but there's sampling and there's sampling.
Two dj sets for Sunday, both there for the taking as a free download.
First, a set of summery, Balaeric tunes from Justin Robertson from the Electric Elephant festival. Warning- veers into soft hippy territory at times but worth sticking with. This would have been perfect last weekend when summer made a brief appearance.
Second, a rocking set from David Holmes, inspired by a recent show by Thee Oh Sees in Belfast. Less beach side this one. Thee Oh Sees play loud, punk/r'n'b with a dash of 60s garage 'n' psych. So does David.
A man called Indidginus (known to his Mum as Michael) emailed me recently promising 'deep bass, top rankin' riddims and ragga vibes'. My love of dub and reggae has been fairly well documented here but I never really clicked with drum 'n' bass and apart from SL2's On A Ragga Tip I couldn't tell you much about ragga either. There are four tracks from the Ruff Tuff ep on the Soundcloud player below. The first three make me feel like an old man to be honest- but I do like the fourth one (3D Bonus track), which delivers on those rankin' riddims promises. Or threats.
'When you come to me in the dead of night and I convince myself it'll be alright'
The closing song off Steve Mason's latest lp is a thing of beauty, the singing and playing are superb, and if it catches you at the wrong moment will put a lump in your throat and make your eyes well up. One very good reason to get yourself down a record shop and buy the album.
'And when you hold me close as the night unfolds and I convince myself that I will grow old '
That gin stuff gets you drunk dunnit. Been reading the November 1988 issue of The Face that dropped through the letterbox today (ebay £2.99, free P&P), bought for Drew but he bought got one off ebay himself so now I've got one too. As well as Glasgow's scooter clubs, Neneh Cherry and Nick Cave it's got Baby Ford in it. Oochy Koochy was released in 1988 and famously the bassline destroyed the PA in several London nightclubs and the speakers in the studio it was recorded in. It says here.
Here's the video from The Chart Show (must have been the Dance Chart week)... you can almost smell the dry ice and poppers...
And the full length 12" version (with a somewhat crap video)...
Right, I'm off to dance on the kitchen table while Mrs Swiss flicks the lights on and off...
Bobby and The Rhythm Rockers were an Arizona based rockabilly band, recording on the El Dorado label. There were several bands called The Rhythm Rockers and to be honest it all gets a little confusing. There's nothing confusing about this song from 1963 though- short and sweet with twanging guitars, plenty of echo and a call out to all the rockers and surfers to dance to the rhythm rock.
I don't know what they've been drinking in Salford recently but there's some strange things brewing across the Irwell. Drew tipped me off to Gnod a little while back. This song is one of the shorter ones of their new lp Chaudelande, being a mere eight minutes long. Starting with some finger cymbals and chanting, just to disconcert you a little, it then settles into a crunching groove with thumping drums and a cranked up guitar. Occasionally some extremely distorted, crackly vocals appear and then disappear. Towards the end they raise it up a notch, shift gear and proceed towards the finale. The wah-wah pedal takes a battering. I'm picturing Salfordian noise-monks playing at a Julian Cope gig somewhere remote, with an audience locked in a barn, transfixed by the pummeling the instruments are getting. Although the truth may be a little crustier. See for yourself. And then shell out for the album.
If you've got three hours of listening time to spare you could do a lot worse than to spend it in the company of this Scott Fraser mix, from Balearic Social. Loads of slo-mo chugging and lovely washes of ambient synths.
I was 16 years old when Alex Ferguson arrived at Manchester United. I'm 43 in eleven days time. He's managed the club I support all my adult life. What's more I was a regular at Old Trafford throughout the Ron Atkinson years and Ferguson's early days and remember what it was like before we were 'the biggest football club in the world' TM. It seems inconceivable that he won't be there. But then again, let's not get carried away- no one's died, it's only a game. Nothing lasts forever.
What digs at me though is that without him there (and soon the last of the old guard- Giggs, Scholes- will be gone too) is that within three years United will be just another rich, big club playing the Euromoneyball, three year cycle, managerial-merry-go-round, the same as all the rest. I know some of you won't give a fuck either way. I know that for some of you there are less rewarding ways to spend money watching football (hello Airdrie, hello York City). Although maybe that isn't less rewarding- I dunno. Yes, we have been spoilt. Yes, it is all over now. Let's see what happens next.
NB Please, please, please, don't let it be Mourinho.
I don't find myself listening to coke ravaged, long lost, classicist rock (70s variant) very often, Neil Young excepted and even him not that much any more, but sometimes a little bit of Dennis Wilson goes a long way.
The new Primal Scream lp is less than a week away and despite it getting good reviews in the press I suspect many people will be ambivalent about it- some bloggers I know have no expectations that it will be any good at all, based on the band's recent form. When I thought about this, their recent poor form goes back to Riot City Blues (2006) because to these ears the last album they released that was convincing all round was Evil Heat in 2002 (and some people don't rate that one that much either). The most recent one, Beautiful Future, was poor all round, it's only redeeming feature the Weatherall remix of Uptown (although on its own that remix redeems a heck of a lot). Drew commented somewhere recently that that remix and Sometimes I Feel So Lonely were the only reasons he had any expectations of Primal Scream anymore. I couldn't remember SIFSL so had to go and dig out Riot City Blues and play it. It is a song they've written several times before- Damaged, I'm Losing More Than I'll Ever Have, Cry Myself Blind- but as countryish ballads go it's very good, hits all the right notes, a bit of Cowboy Junkies in there as well I feel. There was a limited 7" release, a slightly different version, with a children's choir on it and some cinematic strings, but I'm not sure its any better than the one on the lp.
A while back I wrote a post about a Half Man Half Biscuit song which referenced the Staffordshire town of Leek. I said Leek was well known to me as the birthplace of my Dad but that other than the HMHB tune the only other time it had popped up in song was in Joe Strummer's wonderful reggae tinged At The Border, Guy. Recently a reader Sam Sherratt has left a couple of comments on the post adding further detail and deepening Leek's rock 'n' roll connections. This was too important to be left dwindling as comments below a post and I feel deserved a posting in their own right. Sam wrote...
Can help with the Leek reference in the Strummer song. Joe’s pre-Clash band the 101ers had a couple of members originally from Leek (incidentally Joe at the time was known as Woody). This included drummer Richard Dudanski (aka Nother), who later went on to drum with PiL. The 101ers played in Leek at a club called Samantha’s (not Leek Town Hall) and on another occasion came to a party. I was in touch with Richard a few years’ back and he said he asked Joe about this reference and said that he must have been confused.
Nice to tidy up a little corner of rock trivia!
and added afterwards... Leek was also responsible for poisoning the Rolling Stones on Christmas Eve 1963, which is mentioned in Bill Wyman’s diaries – I know the man who bought the pies!
As a follow up to yesterday's Minutemen post- and since I reminded myself of them I've been playing their songs whenever I get the chance over the last couple of days, in among the other stuff- here's the full audio recording in one handy zipfile of that November 1985 Acoustic Blowout! appearance (the forerunner to MTV's Unplugged sessions I suppose).
Tracklist- The Meterman/Corona, Themselves, The Red And The Black, Badges, I Felt Like A Gringo, Time, Green River, Lost, Ack Ack Ack, Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love, History Lesson Part II, Tour Spiel, Little Man With A Gun In His Hand
No work tomorrow so make the most of your Bank Holiday Sunday.
I just discovered this belter of a track by Factory Floor. It sounds a bit like a vocal from a lost Factory Records song circa 1983 played over something you could have danced to circa 1989.
I'd forgotten until recently how much I love The Minutemen- three unlikely looking punkers from San Pedro, California who made several classic mid-80s indie-punk albums for SST. Although Minutemen are more of a band inspired by punk than sounding like punk. They were fired up by punk's DIY attitude and sense of freedom and personal political responsibility but weren't Sex Pistols copyists or three chord trickists. Instead they played very short, quite fast, agit-folk-punk with a bit of funk on the side. On their 1984 double lp Double Nickels On the Dime they released 43 songs, none much over two minutes long. This one tells their story and is just about perfect.
From an earlier lp (Buzz Or Howl Under The Influence Of Heat) comes this intricate beauty, loads of ascending and descending, criss-crossing guitar and basslines, working up to the one line chorus- 'little man with a gun in his hand'. If you don't like this, I'm not sure there is any hope for you.
And from the magnificent documentary We Jam Econo, History Lesson Part II live, acoustic and stripped down, with some chat from Mike Watt in the van first. D Boon, singer and guitarist, died in a car accident in 1985. I don't think Mike Watt has ever gotten over it.
On the subject of moonlighting Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs department are under the impression that as well as working full time as a teacher I also spent the last tax year employed by Clear Cleaning Ltd. As a result they claim I owe them around £2500 on the £10, 000 plus they think I was paid. Obviously I do not and have not worked as a cleaner- I hate cleaning- and can't see how they think I'd fit it in. Googling Clear Cleaning Ltd shows a firm wound up by the High Court in Birmingham last year and another of the same name in London. One of which they say I worked for while I living in Manchester and working thirty miles north of here. Words fail me.
I have appealed in writing. Have a good bank holiday weekend.
Following the somewhat kosmische theme we've had here recently I heard Can's Mothersky the other day (on BBC 6 I reckon, I can't think of another radio station I'd either listen to or would play it). A few years back French re-edit chap Pilooski re-worked it. Pilooski is a dab hand at the old re-editing game and this is a game effort. Whether Mothersky really needed re-editing is open to question.
That Moon Duo remix album that came out for Record Shop Day is very good- eight remixes and only one that doesn't really do much for me. I haven't got the actual vinyl unfortunately- I found this somewhere on the internets. This song, remixed by Tom Furse of The Horrors, is a beaut.
Andrew Weatherall's stint as artist in residence at Faber has paid off with this mixtape, entitled Music's Not For Everyone Volume 2 Episode 1. Includes King Tubby, Primal Scream, Lee Hazlewood and Ivor Cutler.
It's May- how did that happen? Seems like only a few weeks ago it was January and now 2013 is five months in. Maybe this extended winter we've had makes it seem that way. Maybe it's just time seems to speed up as we get older.
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