It's 1958 and poor old Warren Miller's the only guy in town without a baby. If he had one, he could get her to jump over him at the hop while he looks up her skirt.
There's a gauntlet thrown down. See if you can recreate this picture tonight.
Friday, 14 October 2011
The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 30
It's 1958 and poor old Warren Miller's the only guy in town without a baby. If he had one, he could get her to jump over him at the hop while he looks up her skirt.
We'll Stay Inside 'Til Somebody Finds us
I posted The National's cover of The Clash's Clampdown last month and in the meantime have found myself going back to this song, from their Boxer album in 2007. If all their songs were as good as this one I'd love The National. It's got a lovely, insistent rhythm and tells a tale of a couple holed up in their apartment, taking comfort in each other, safe inside with four walls and the TV, while the cruel, relentless, adult world waits outside. At least, that's what I hear.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
Hey Is Dee Dee Home?
Johnny Thunders may either be the cockiest, coolest, guitar slinging ex-New York Doll who inspired a legion of imitators (Steve Cook for one), or the dick who introduced heroin to the London punk scene, sewed bad vibes throughout and ultimately caused the whole scene to splinter, but he did leave behind at least two punk rock classics- You Can't Put Your Arms Around A Memory being one, and the other being Chinese Rocks. Written by Richard Hell and Dee Dee Ramone, Chinese Rocks was an attempt to write a drug song that was better than The Velvet Underground's Heroin. There followed a bitch and blame session about who wrote what, what Johnny Thunders contributed ('nothing' according to Richard Hell) and much sniping in the way that only punk bands could snipe at each other. What is pretty clear though is that Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers recorded the definitive version.
Wednesday, 12 October 2011
It's Just You Remind Me Of Brian Rix
From Brian Olive to Brian Rix. This song was a tribute to the 'king of farce' by 80s indie band The Brilliant Corners. This song is so of it's time, so of it's genre- jangly guitar, perky trumpets, verging on twee, rhythm section trying to keep up... but it's got period charm.
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
Left Side Rock
The gentleman in the interesting suit is Brian Olive, a former member of The Greenhornes (who made some not terribly interesting 70s rock revival with Jack White). Brian has released a rather good 60s psyche influenced album (Two Of Everything), which was one of the selections the last time Weatherall played his 6 mix show. It's produced by The Black Keys Dan Auerbach, so has those vintage, valve amp sounds nailed down, but it's well worth looking out for if you like that kind of thing. This song opens the record.
Monday, 10 October 2011
Massive Burial
This looks good- Massive Attack versus Burial on heavyweight 12" vinyl, Burial re-working 4 Walls and Paradise Circus; crackle, bass, spectral samples, general air of spooky foreboding. It's out today for pre-order, available from next Monday and limited to 1000 copies so don't hang about. Get it here or here.
No Postcard Or Telephone
Jesse Malin first popped up in 2002ish and was much beloved by the UK's music magazines. He had that tousle haired, black leather jacket, Johnny Thunders, New York look down to a T and some songs to back it up. Looking at the back of this album, The Fine Art Of Self Destruction, I can't remember anything about any of the songs listed except this one- Wendy- which I kind of love. There's nothing new or groundbreaking here, but it's got a crunchy guitar riff, a she-done-gone-sodded-off-and-left-me lyric and certain amount of spark. The album was produced by the absurdly overrated Ryan Adams.
Sunday, 9 October 2011
Just Swell
At only one minute and twenty nine seconds long Swell Maps debut single doesn't hang about and is none the worse for it. Read About Seymour was a DIY, punk inspired, 1977 self released single. Solihull's Swell Maps consisted of a pair of brothers (Epic Soundtracks and Nikki Sudden, great stage names both) and school friends Biggles Brooks, Jowe Head, Phones Sportsman (ha!) and John Cockrill. Come on, John, why no pseudonym?
Saturday, 8 October 2011
Some People Try To Pick Up Girls
... and get called asshole, this never happened to Pablo Picasso. So said Jonathan Richman way back in 1972. Brilliant track, with a lovely riff and one great line turned into a whole song.
Friday, 7 October 2011
The Return Of Friday Night Is Rockabilly Night 29
The Blues Rockers with some rural rockabilly to liven up your Friday night. This was a favourite of Lux and Ivy. Let's mooove...
Biomass
...isn't a particularly inspiring name for a band, and the list of genres they label themselves as might cause some people run shrieking from the room. Biomass dropped into my inbox a week or two ago, with a link to free download for their album Energy. From San Francisco, Biomass list the following among others- ambient, psychedelic, industrial, neo-classical, psychonaut, visionary, shamanic, trance and visual music at their bandcamp page. So far, so San Franciscan, but their stuff is worth a listen if you like drones or hypnotic pulsing 'dance' music. The picture above is what I got when I image searched 'biomass' and 'energy'. The visuals the band use are somewhat more sophisticated but I like diagrams like this one.
Thursday, 6 October 2011
Dentistry
This isn't facebook it's a music blog but still- I got an emergency dentist appointment today. A few weeks ago I lost part of a filling to a chocolate brownie. The only appointment I could get then was for the dentist to confirm I had lost part of a filling and to make an appointment for him to fix it. The nearest appointment was on October 24th. So, unable to get it sorted out for six weeks, I've since been chewing on the right, wincing at hot/cold drinks, swallowing pain killers and dulling it with alcohol. Until last Sunday when it got really bad, with shooting pains round my head and non-stop jaw/gum/toothache. I finally got a proper emergency appointment today where I was drilled, filled, capped, scaled and polished. And told I also had a partially erupted wisdom tooth which had got infected. Much of the pain is now gone, replaced by a different, post -treatment pain, which is better. At least it's different pain.
Causing An Upset
Some very cool instrumental reggae for Thursday from The Upsetters. Organ led, funky, heading towards Blackpool Wurlitzer style organ in places, The Upsetters 1970 The Good, The Bad and The Upsetters album was disowned by Lee Perry on release. Can't see why. Nice cover too.
Wednesday, 5 October 2011
Bert
Bert Jansch died today aged 67, one of British music's true originals. I had the privilege of seeing him play several years ago at The Lowry in Salford. In 2000, on a wave of interest in his work he recorded an album with Johnny Marr and Bernard Butler. This song features both Bert and Johnny.
Space Travel Wears Me Out, I Look Ill But I Don't Care About It
If every band in Britain in 1978 had at least one great single in them, this one was The Only Ones. Another Girl, Another Planet is inexplicably good and attempting to isolate it's constituent parts doesn't really explain its greatness. The band clearly weren't punk (look at them), but benefited from the floodgates punk opened. I know people rave about other songs they wrote but nothing else comes close to this moment of genius.
Tuesday, 4 October 2011
Going Ballistic
The Ballistic Brothers made a handful of laid back, jazzy, electronic, street albums in the 1990s. I sometimes wish they'd toughen up at bit, dig deeper into Ashley Beedle's reggae and Rocky and Diesel's house backgrounds, but there's some good stuff in the back catalogue. London Hooligan Soul from 1995 has the very ace ska tribute song Peckings, which appeared here well over a year ago. The album also has highly entertaining sleeve notes romantically detailing 'London hooligan soul' life- bunking school, casual clothing (Fila, Lacoste, Lois, Tachini), Blair Peach, soul weekenders, Studio One, the Tory government, The Jam, Phuture, East Grinsted, Bognor, poll tax riots- 'a thousand stories of promised lands and meccas'. This song closed the album.
Monday, 3 October 2011
Sparrows, Potatoes, Workshops, Ladies
My friend H plays in a band called Echolocation, mainly in the Leicester area. Recently they supported Sparrow And The Workshop who have had two well received albums including Spitting Daggers, out earlier this year. He recommended them to me, both live and on disc, in fulsome terms. And who can deny a band so well dressed and with twin moustaches? They do a kind of alt-folk-rock noir, old time music and old time instrumentation, and it works really well. There's some rockier numbers among the dark folk but I had to go for this song, the true story of King Louis XV's fourteen year old Irish mistress.
This is my 900th post. I didn't think I'd ever get this far when I started out.
Viva Death In Vegas
Death In Vegas are back with a new album, Trans Love Energies, several years after their last one (the krauty Satan's Circus). It's shaping up to be a Bagging Area 2011 favourite. I found this on the net recently, DiV performing two tracks live on the lovely Lauren Laverne's radio show- first the magnificently titled Your Loft, My Acid followed by Medication.
Sunday, 2 October 2011
The Lights On The Goodyear Blimp
The Goodyear blimp has been circling above Manchester for the last couple of weeks. I've no idea why it's with us but I like seeing it up there. And it reminds me of this early 90s gangsta rap song from Ice Cube. Blimp can only rhyme with one thing for Mr Cube can't it? This posting also contains scenes of a sexual nature, mild peril, heavy weaponry and a very funky Isley Brothers sample.
Saturday, 1 October 2011
Indian Summer Too
It's October and it's hotter than August. Beat Happening, kings of the lo-fi, none-more-indie, U.S. underground, with one of the most rudimentary songs you'll find. A tale of youth, lost love and lust, the cemetery and wild cherry, and days stolen from autumn. Highly recommended.
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