Listening to Michael Stipe's slim catalogue of post- R.E.M. songs recently led me to a 2021 tribute album, I'll Be Your Mirror: A Tribute To The Velvet Underground And Nico- an album of covers of all the songs from the banana sleeved 1967 album that invented as many bands as The Beatles or Kraftwerk did. It's a hit and miss affair as these tribute albums often are but there are a few highlights and Michael Stipe's cover of Sunday Morning is one of them with strings by Hal Willner, the New York producer who worked with Lou Reed and Marianne Faithful among others. Stipe's sister Lynda sings backing vocals on the song, the opening tune on an album that is one of his top three records of all time (one of the others being Patti Smith's Horses and the third possibly Television's debut).
It led to me going through my collection in search of other Velvet Underground cover versions- there are many. In the mid- 80s the release of V.U. and Another V.U. gave the Velvets a further shot in the arm, the new slew of previously unreleased songs inspiring a new generation of bands. This is a forty five minute mix of Velvets covers with one unofficial edit- remix thrown in. There are so many I've left out a second edition could easily follow. The Velvet Underground never get old, never get tired, familiarity never breeds contempt. They are a band that keeps giving.
Cowboy Junkies: Sweet Jane (Mojo Filter Junkie Re- Love)
Matt Berninger: I'm Waiting For The Man
Kurt Vile: Run Run Run
R.E.M.: After Hours (Live 1989)
Michael Stipe's cover version of Sunday Morning is a low key joy, clarinet and guitar leading us in and then Stipe's voice, making the most of Lou Reed's melodies and pop song sensibilities. The bassline is the one from Walk On The Wild Side, a nice little touch.
Lovekittens were a an early 90s indie band who released two singles, one a cover of What Goes On which The Orb produced and then also remixed. Ambient house Velvets with cooing vocals.
Nhii is a Brooklyn producer and musician who remixed/ edited What Goes On in 2020. What Goes On is a key Velvets song, two chords and some psyche organ and that endless Velvets groove. Nhii's edit rumbles in on Mo Tucker's drums and then splices a new rhythm and beat into it, 2020 dance music with a scuzzy edge. There's some acid thrown too and then Lou's vocal arrives, 'Baby be good/ Do what you should/ You know it'll be alright'.
The Kills cover of Pale Blue Eyes is a B-side from a 2012 single, The Last Goodbye. Jamie's guitar tone is perfect, a gnarly, distorted sound that works his amp beautifully. The bit n the middle where the whole song stutters is really cool too. There are loads of covers of Pale Blue Eyes- R.E.M. and Paul Quinn with Edwyn Collins both did memorable versions.
Thurston Moore is on the I'll be Your Mirror tribute album,a cover of heroin with Bobby Gillespie on vocals. This cover from last year is better though, a Thurston Moore live favourite finally recorded in 2025 and then released on Sterling Morrison's birthday (29th August).
Cowboy Junkies cover of Sweet Jane (as edited here Balearic style by Mojo Filter) turned up in last Sunday's mix too, a song I played at The Golden Lion back in February. Cowboy Junkies based their version on the one The Velvets did on the 1969 live album rather than the one from Loaded. Lou Reed approved of this.
Matt Berninger (from The National) and his cover of I'm Waiting For The Man are from the I'll Be Your Mirror tribute. Velvet Underground songs are so well known and so them that bringing something new to them is difficult. Berninger strips the song down into a two chord clank, metal on metal drumming, and his weary, worn voice sounding like he knows exactly what it's like and how it goes when you're waiting for your man.
Kurt Vile's cover of Run Run Run is also from I'll Be Your Mirror. He'd appeared on this blog once before this weekend, one post in fifteen and a half years. Now he's been on it twice more in two days. His cover of Run Run Run is a thrilling take on the song- it's a song that inspired a million bands to play dirty, distorted two chord rock 'n' roll, a fun song to play and Kurt sounds him and his band are having fun. Lou wrote the song on the back of an envelope on the way to a gig and its got one of those casts of Lou reed characters in the lyrics, Teenage Mary, Uncle Dave, Margarita Passion, Seasick Sarah and Beardless Harry all on the hunt for drugs.
We started with Michael Stipe and we finish with him too, this time singing with R.E.M. in 1989 on the Green tour. They were still in the habit of playing covers for encores on this tour- I saw them at Liverpool Royal Court and they did this song there, the last one they did that night. They released four covers Velvets songs during the 80s, three of them rounded up on the Dead Letter Office B-sides album from 1987.
A series for Saturdays in 2026 inspired by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's set of cards, Oblique Strategies (Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas). Eno and Schmidt created them to be used to unblock creative impasses and approach problems from unexpected angles. Each week I'll turn over an Oblique Strategy card and post a song or songs inspired by the suggestion.
Last week's Oblique Strategy suggestion was Don't break the silence.
My responses to this were A Life Of Silence by Scott Fraser and Timothy J. Fairplay plus Simon and Garfunkel, Bill Drummond's No Music Day and Mark Peters. The Bagging Area collective were prompted to suggest Enjoy The Silence by Depeche Mode (this had several suggestions), Elliott Smith, Delirium, Bjork's It's Oh So Quiet, Durutti Column, Crass' Sound Of Free Speech, Kate, Julian Cope, The Silence, Ranking Dread, John Cage, The Delgados, Deep Purple and Kula Shaker, and Fugazi. That list is a radio show/ mix tape in itself. Thank you to Jez, Beerfeuledlad, Chris, C, Rol, Japsikeliz, Ernie, hsd, JC and Walter.
This week's Oblique Strategy is this- Humanise something free of error.
It didn't spark much in me at first, few initial responses which is what often happens when I choose a card. I can see how in the recording studio a band/ artist could apply that suggestion- mess it up, put the human element in, put mistake back in that you took out earlier.
Then I thought about house music and those early 80s records (and many made sicne) where the music is totally flawless in terms of being computer assisted. Programmed drums, sequenced basslines, Midi, synths and keys playing perfect electronic notes. And then an unmistakably human vocal on top that took the robotic/ programmed element and humanised it, something like this endlessly brilliant slice of 1986 Chicago house....
Farley Jackmaster Funk and Daryl Pandy, Daryl being the very human vocalist.
I also then thought of this song by Kurt Vile, Bassackwards, a nine minute long opus from 2018 where the music is free of error- acoustic guitars, harp and drums all locked in, loose but controlled psychedelic folk-rock with little bursts of perfectly deployed backwards guitar and feedback and on top Kurt's vocal, very human and real, a long sigh in the face of existential dread.
I typed Humanise something free of error into Google and found a book by that title bySarah Piegay Espenon, a visual research project about climate change and man- made weather modification. I imagine she took the title from Eno and Schmidt's Oblique Strategies. One of the reviews says that the book is 'an oblique response to... issues of power and left opened visual associations along the thin line between peaceful and hostile usage of geoengineering' (read it here and see some of the photos) which sounds like it very well fit in with some of the things Crass were concerned about in the late 70s and early 80s.
Feel free to leave your own Oblique suggestions in the comment box.
A bunch of new releases for Friday, the start of a Bank Holiday weekend and a half term holiday too for me, all reasons enough to celebrate.
First up, a new single from Number. Released back in January Number's album Pollinate is a blast of post- punk/ punk- funk/ wonky disco made by Red Snapper's Ali Friend and Rich Thair, a state of the nation/ world album you can dance to. Discoid came out as a single in early May and was followed this week by a remix by Tranquil Elephantizer, a six minute chugged up, hugely infectious dancefloor monster that doesn't let up. Over at Bandcamp you can get the remix, a radio edit version and a dub. More fun than you can shake a drum stick at, a critique of late stage capitalism clad in disco clothing.
Next, Manchester label Sprechen are on a roll, one hit after another. The recent album by Lines Of Silence and EPs by Viper Patrol and The Thief Of Time are all part of the story as is the new four track EP from Matt Gunn- Complicata. Woozy, off kilter psychedelic cosmic disco, very much in the vein of the much loved ALFOS nights, pioneered by Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston and now under Sean's solo stewardship. Be Born is a slo mo, star lit nine minute journey; synth arpeggios, pianos and pads, all aimed squarely at the sweet spot near the speakers. It shifts gear after two minutes forty, guitars and kick drum taking over. Sterndale Moonstomp follows, wide eyed and a little sweaty with a thumping bass drum. Quid Significat is a disco- funk odyssey, the 9 O' Clock Drop kicking in, ACR and 23 Skidoo taken over by synths. Complicata ends with Not A Hymn, another long one at nine and a half minutes that slows the rhythms but keeps the heat- squelchy, thumpy psychedelic dancefloor joy. Find the EP at Sprechen's Bandcamp.
There are further new releases coming from Sprechen this summer, including one by Birds Of Pandaemonium with some Richard Norris remixes that are typically great and Brighton's Higher Love label returns to action next month with an EP by Mass Density Human that is a woozy joy. More to follow nearer the time.
Jim Baron is one of Crazy P and has a solo Balearic/ folk/ Laurel Canyon trip under the name JIM. His 2023 album Loves Make Magic was a Bagging Area favourite and the slew of remixes that followed it all added new dimensions. JIM's just put out a new single, Love Over Gold (not a cover of the Dire Straits song) with his daughter Edie sharing vocals, slow jam, off centre Balearic pop that grows a little more with each play.
One of those treats that light up your life- got home yesterday, long day at work, exam season, had some tea, pottered round the kitchen loading the dishwasher and other mundane chores, went to the computer and opened up my emails and sitting in the middle of the unread pile in my Inbox was one from Heavenly Recordings that read, 'Dexys Midnight Runners Announce New Album LOVE/ My Life In England Pt. 1 single and video out now'
How much fun is that? The song, the singing and the video.
My Life In England Pt 1 is the story of Kevin's childhood, his Irish immigrant roots, his father and brother, the Irish community in Wolverhampton, rebel songs in social clubs and being taught to fight and love, and then on moving to North London discovering the joys of clothes, music and dancing. The song was originally recorded for a Dexys compilation in 2003, written by Kevin and Jim Patterson- the new version opens the new album, called Love because Kevin realised that all the songs one way or another were about love. It's produced by David Holmes, who had been wanting to work with the band since being eleven years old when his sister gave him a Walkman and his first cassette was Searching For The Young Soul Rebels and the first band he saw live.
Back in 1985 Dexys released one of the great misunderstood albums of that decade, one that over time has grown to be recognised as a masterpiece. In 1997 after years out of print it was re- issued by Creation and Kevin renamed some of the songs including Listen to This, a song just packed to the brim with passion and feeling.
There's so much new music out there at the moment I don't feel like I can keep up with it, either as a listener/ fan or as a blogger. Jason Boardman's Before I Die label is at a point where every release is essential- this year the label has released Arrival and Kevin McCormick's One/ Common Place 12" and the Hawksmoor album Am I Conscious Now? which followed albums in 2025 by Klangkollektor and Sonnenspot. Now Before I Die has put out a 7" that is right up there alongside those other records, J- Walk's Never Go Home, produced in J- Walk's Stockport home studio.
The A- side is a slice of late 80s indie indebted psychedelia, the sunglasses, repetition and Vox amps of Spacemen 3 and spirit of the pre- Screamadelica Creation records- some softly sung vocals, layers of guitars and keys, a woozy organ solo and hissy drums. It's a marvel.
'You can never go home again/ There's no sense in trying'.
The B-side is Dub Never Go, a maximally dubbed out excursion with the Roland Space Echo in full effect and the ghost of King Tubby hovering around the room. The drums rattle and the bass bumps away, there's hiss and flutter, random bursts of distorted organ and acres and acres of echo. It's also a marvel.
You can find it at Bandcamp, available digitally and (maybe) with some vinyl still available.
Today's post is brought to you in association with the number fifty six. The A56 runs past the top of our road and a mile up the road from us (heading towards Manchester city centre) it goes past the beautiful but empty Art Deco cinema in Stretford (formerly Stretford Essoldo, pictured above).
The A56 starts out on Frodsham Street in Chester and heads east through Cheshire, past Warrington and Runcorn and then passes Lymm where it turns to Altrincham, then Sale and Stretford (it is at various points between Altrincham and Old Trafford called Chester Road, Cross Street and Washway Road). Then it runs through Gorse Hill to Old Trafford where Manchester United's ground lies to its left, skirts Hulme and when it hits town it becomes Deansgate. From there north to Salford and Bury and into Lancashire, to Colne and Nelson before reaching Skipton and eventually running out of tarmac in the village of Broughton, North Yorkshire.
Fact 56 was A Factory Video, a various artists VHS video released by Factory in 1982, the starting point of what Tony Wilson believed would be a brave new artistic world for the record label. The Factory video production arm was Ikon (Brian Nicholson) and operated from the basement of the Factory HQ at 86 Palatine Road. For a while it was based in the cellar of Tony Wilson's house on Old Broadway, a house that in 1982 I walked past every day on the way home from school. Aged twelve, I wasn't really up to speed with what was going on in that cellar. Ikon ran their own video release series and Fact 56 was a compilation of some of those releases.
It starts with New Horizon by Section 25. New Horizon is the final song on their 1981 album Always Now, a record produced by Martin Hannett and clad in one of Peter Saville's Factory artwork masterpieces. The advice Peter got from band member Larry Cassidy was 'something quite European, but psychedelic with some oriental influences'. 'After that', he said, 'I was on my own'. The sleeve opens like an envelope, marbled on the inside on specialist card with bold type on the front and die cut.
Tony Wilson was right about the importance of videos and video art. Fact 56 was available to buy on VHS and Betamax. I would guess a lot of copies of both ended up in landfill in the 90s as the world went digital. There are two copies for sale on Discogs, one for £50 and one for 80 Euros which would suggest they're pretty scarce now.
There isn't too much else about the number 56. It became a symbol of the Hungarian Uprising. Joe DiMaggio had a 56 game hitting streak. It means that I'm now closer to 60 than 50.
This came out recently, nothing to do with 56, just something I wanted to share- Seu Jorge and Beck covering Nick Drake's River Man, a lush and very lovely bossa nova version of the song from Brazil and produced by former Beastie Boy producer Mario C.
If we accept as truth that Tricky made some of the most uncompromising and influential music of the 1990s- as well as his part in Massive Attack's Blue Lines, his debut album Maxinquaye with the voice of co- singer Martina Topley- Bird rewrote what UK rap/ blues/dub/ sound system music could be like and was instrumental in the development of trip hop. He then made Pre- Millennium Tension and Nearly God, both seriously heavy albums.
He's continued to release records, including 2020's Falls To Pieces and Fifteen Days (as Theis Thaws) and a new one comes out in July, Different When It's Silent. I haven't kept up with all his releases but the Theis Thaws single last year, Fly To Ceiling which had a David Holmes remix and another, Where Are You Lately, remixed by Radioactive Man, both got me listening to him again.
I got a ticket for his gig at Factory International in Manchester on Saturday night and a group of us headed down. The gig was, well, it was odd, some aspects of it were downright perplexing. Tricky is an artist and known for being fairly idiosyncratic and uncompromising. We were in the seated venue of the Factory arts centre which felt very formal from the off (there's a hall downstairs which is also used for gigs which is standing which would have been better).
The stage was dark, no spotlights. The three musicians at the back- a man on synths/ laptop, a drummer in the middle and a guitarist on the left- were all lit but the front of the stage where Tricky and two co- vocalists were, was in complete darkness. They stayed that way for the entire gig- not lights at all, just three shadowy figures either at the mic or moving back from it and waiting. The set was largely newer material and it was gripping stuff at times. The drummer (huge drum kit but only really used the snare, the floor tom and the kick) was good, the laptop/ synth operator did a lot of heavy lifting and the guitarist was on it, kicking up dirty, distorted punk riffs, slashing away when it needed it and playing quieter, single notes on the less intense songs.
Tricky did thank us after two or three of the songs but other than that there was little sense that we were involved in the gig. It felt more like a performance than a gig. At a gig, there's a shared experience, an energy between crowd and artist, a sense that the audience is part of it. It didn't feel like that. On some songs Tricky was barely present vocally. The two co- singers were great, very much in the sound and style of the songs he did with Martina in the 90s. Occasionally Tricky would rasp a few lines, approach the mic and gives us some of that half stoned/ half threatening magic. At times he was just a figure on stage in complete darkness. It's obviously his thing, they're his songs and it's his sound, he's in charge of it all- but a little more of him and maybe a flicker of spotlight or stage lights onto him would have been nice.
Halfway though the guitarist kicked into the familiar wah wah intro to Black Steel and the tension and intensity grew and the audience responded with cheers and applause. Black Steel is a seminal 90s tune, one of those songs that rewired the culture for me, a new take on Public Enemy's song, an anti- government, anti- military, anti- authoritarian tune with ferocious guitars and bass and huge punk drums. It was a significant part of the reason I was at the gig.
The singer on the right led it as the guitarist thrashed away and the drum got ready to explode, 'I got a letter from the government the other day/ Opened it and read it/ It said they were suckers'. I felt a jolt of excitement, a moment of electrification. Tricky wandered to the back of the stage, wandering round behind the drum riser. I expected he'd make his way back for the 'Many switch in, switch on, switch off ' lines', but he didn't. He came back after the song finished. A few songs later they played Overcome, the song that he shares with Massive Attack (Kormacoma on Protection) and again, a big moment for me and I'd imagine many of the audience.
'You sure you wanna be with me?/ I've nothing to give' is one of the bleakest opening lines in pop music and the song is one where love and sex merge with paranoia and dislocation, 'You're a couple/ 'specially when your bodies double/ Duplicate and then you wait/ For the next Kuwait'. It's dark and messy and reeks of the fug of weed. The band and singers play it perfectly. Then we go back to the newer songs, some of which gather steam, a few lines from Tricky here and there and then often just as it looks like the song's come together and going to fly, the guitarist and drummer locked in, they stop dead.
Forty five minutes and they're done and head off. Tricky leads the band back on for an encore, three more songs. 'Come on Tricky!' someone shouts from the seats below us. Still no lights, it could be anyone centre stage. Afterwards, chatting to a few other people near the bar, they felt the same. A few are pissed off, wanted or expected a little more. Most people are fairly sanguine- 'it's Tricky, it's what he does'. He definitely can't be accused of becoming a heritage act living off former glories and giving it some showbiz moves.
It was a little mystifying in a way and could have been so much more- some lights, some projections or films behind the band, a little bit more from the man himself. The band are really good and the sound is superb. The singers are great. It's up to him of course and god knows he's had to deal with some terrible stuff in his life but I was left with the feeling that Tricky was only partly there.
